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ST. TERESA’S 
BOOK-MARK 


A Meditative Commentary 


BY 


REV. FATHER LUKE OF ST. JOSEPH 

DISCALCED CARMELITE 



Let nothing trouble thee, 

Let nothing affright thee. 

All things are passing; 

God only is changeless. 

Patience gains all things. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 
God alone sufficeth. 


Translated by a friend for Carmel of St. Louis. 


Copyright 1919 



ST. TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 
A MEDITATIVE COMMENTARY 

By Rev. Father Luke of St. Joseph 


Nihil obstat. 


St. Louis, 19. Jan., 1919. 

F. G. HOLWECK, Censor. 


imprimatur 

JOANNES JOSEPHUS, 

Arckiepiscopus, St. Ludovici. 

STI. LUDOVICI, die 19. Jan., 1919. 


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INTRODUCTION 


My Mother St. Teresa was a remarkable 
poetess because she was a great Saint. All 
the Saints are poets, although not all have 
left us written in rhythmic cadences the 
ardent sentiments of their deified souls. 

The foundation of poetry is truth, its dis¬ 
tinctive trait is sentiment; its attractive 
gala apparel is lent to it by the imagination. 
He was not entirely wrong who defined 
poetry: as the language of passion and of an 
ardent imagination, (Blair ^s Lessons in 
Rhetoric and Fine Arts. XXXIV.) 

An inspiration suddenly surprising one’s 
spirit, envelops it in a nimbus of light and 
moves it deeply. Behold the soul of poetry! 
At its light all the faculties of the soul 
awaken, and the warmth that they irradiate 
communicates itself to the fancy, the heart, 
perhaps to the very senses; and thus, all the 
vital forces concentrating on the object that 
awakened them, the spirit sings or weeps, 
that is, feels itself a poet. 

Truth is to souls what the sun is to crea¬ 
tion. Its light is always the same, but its 
etfects are very different and even opposite, 
according to the point upon which this light 
is projected. If the luminous rays fall upon 
a quagmire, they cause germs to develop 
and with them poison the air we breathe, 
(v) 


INTRODUCTION 


Wlien inspiration alights upon an ignoble 
soul, it also becomes very dangerous, for the 
powers aroused within are placed at the dis¬ 
posal of an evil purpose; and there is noth¬ 
ing more dangerous than perverted genius. 
With the germs their light has caused to 
spring from the dregs of the heart or the 
mire of the senses, they poison the moral at¬ 
mosphere and may envenom numberless 
souls. 

But when these same rays of light fall 
upon some well disposed ground that care¬ 
fully conserves the seeds of plants and 
flowers, at their heat these quickly open and 
send forth their tender shoots, form buds, 
and flowers and fruits; thus beautifying, per¬ 
fuming and enriching creation, and even the 
little innocent birds proclaim with joyous 
warbles and sweet melodies the sun^s light 
as it appears with the first scintillations of 
the dawn. The birds and flowers are the 
poets of the irrational world, as they answer 
to its moods and sing when bathed in warmth 
and light. 

The light of truth, resting upon an inno¬ 
cent soul and pure heart, excites them 
sweetly. Powers until then latent awaken with 
great sprightliness and vigor. The mind is 
able to see more clearly, whilst the heart feels 
with greater delicacy and harmony. The fancy 
finds graces and beauties until then unknown 
to it. The passions and the senses become 

(Vi) 


INTRODUCTION 


silenced or illumined by that new light of 
truth, placing themselves at the souPs dis¬ 
posal. The spirit imbibes all of man’s ener¬ 
gies and concentrating them on one single 
object, soon overflows in poetical language. 
The poetical fire enthuses and sweetens the 
soul which feels interiorly the noble senti¬ 
ment of all of its words. Man is then a poet, 
and he manifests it, whether in prose or verse. 
Poetry is a flame that illumines the mind, 
inflames the heart and enriches the fancy. It 
is more difficult to conceal it when present 
than to feign it when it does not exist. The 
Saints are naturally poets. Being nearer to 
God and accustomed to the contemplation of 
infinite truth, they feel more generously its 
divine influence. Their hearts being so well 
predisposed towards God, and containing the 
supernatural seeds of the life of God within 
them, when through contemplation this 
heavenly light beams upon them, they feel 
deeply and sweetly touched; the peace and 
joy experienced in their souls are communi¬ 
cated to their words and actions. Therefore 
Saints are poets, even though they have not 
written in rhythmic cadences. 

Poetry is necessary to the human spirit. 
Noble and sensitive souls become asphyxi¬ 
ated with the defilements of this artificial 
world, and in a poetical atmosphere they can 
breathe with freedom. The Saints, already 
detached from earthly miseries, dwell more 
(vii) 


INTRODUCTION 


in heaven than on earth; living and walking 
with freedom, they sing of their joys, and 
weep for what yet remains of their dull cap¬ 
tivity. One of Milton’s biographers and 
critics has aptly said: ‘‘None can be a poet, 
or even take delight in poetry, without a cer¬ 
tain amount of pain of spirit. ’ ’ 

Profound sadness of soul is an almost 
essential condition for the inspiration of 
poetry. Truth, love, sadness, and we must 
add hope; these are essential to every true 
poet. 

The Saints possessed these qualities in an 
eminent degree. They possessed truth be¬ 
cause they sought it at its fountainhead, God; 
they loved tenderly because they were Saints; 
they felt sad because they considered them¬ 
selves exiled from heaven; they leaned upon 
hope because they felt they were the sons of 
God. 

My Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus was 
thus familiar with the manner of intercourse 
with God; she, who figures in the first rank 
of the happy choir of the souls most loved 
by God; she, the Angel of purity, the Seraph 
of love and Cherub of celestial wisdom; the 
thrice adorned spouse, the chosen disciple 
and beloved daughter of Jesus, must needs 
be a poetess, for it is not possible to be nearly 
always in conscious union with infinite Truth 
and not become rapt in the splendors of His 

(viii) 


INTRODUCTION 


divine light; to feel the constant presence of 
that infinite Beauty and not become sweetly 
captivated by it; to have a foretaste of the 
sweetness of that life above, and not experi¬ 
ence a weariness and sadness, and feel a dis¬ 
like for the things below—to feel one’s self 
so tenderly caressed as a daughter of God 
and not to be filled with unshakable hope in 
His divine promises. 

To be conscious of all this and not proclaim 
it, not sing of it in the most intimate effusions 
of the soul, were not possible to a soul so 
grateful, a heart as ardent, noble and gener¬ 
ous as hers. 

Ah, yes! My Mother must needs he a 
poetess, for she was a great Saint. And more 
than on account of her privileged talent, 
more than because of her incomparable 
genius, she should he a poetess, because of 
her most pure and ardent heart. The love of 
God that inflamed it, and not its genius, must 
guide her pen and modulate her sweetest 
songs. But we will let the Saint instruct us 
herself. Speaking of the state of the soul 
when it has reached the third degree of 
prayer, she says: 

‘‘ ’Tis a slumber of the faculties, which 
neither lose themselves completely nor yet 
understand how they act. The joy, sweetness 
and delight experienced are, without com¬ 
parison, greater than before; it gives the 
waters of grace to these lips and to this soul, 
(ix) 


INTRODUCTION 


This agony is enjoyed with unspeakable de¬ 
light. Many words are now spoken in praise 
of God, without rhythm, if the Lord Himself 
does not lend them harmony, the understand¬ 
ing, however, is of no worth here. Oh, my 
God! in what a state is the soul when it is 
thus; it would wish to he wholly transformed 
into tongues with which to praise Thee. 1 
know someone who without being a poet hap¬ 
pened of a sudden to write very touching 
couplets. [There is no doubt but what this 
someone was the Saint herself], fitly pro¬ 
claiming her sorrow, not composed by her 
understanding, but, in order the more to en¬ 
joy the ecstasy that caused her such sweet 
sutfering, she would complain of it to her 
God.^’ (Life, chap. XVI.) 

Our Saint is always poetical, in her prose 
no less than in her verse. Certain it is that 
her most forceful poems do not contain 
greater inspiration or more ardent senti¬ 
ments than her ^‘Mansions of the Soul,’’ or 
her incomparable ‘ ‘ Exclamations. ’ ’ There is 
nothing that can so exalt the mind or fill it 
with greater tenderness than these words 
taken at random: ‘^May God live and give 
me life; may He reign and I be captive, for 
my soul desires no other freedom.” ‘‘How 
can he be free who finds himself estranged 
from the Highest Good? What greater or 
more miserable captivity than for the soul 
to be loosed from the hand of its Maker? 

(X) 


INTRODUCTION 


Oh, life! thou enemy of my welfare, who but 
thee has the right to end thee; I suffer thee 
because God suffers thee, and I sustain thee 
because thou art His. 0 Life, be not 
treacherous or ungrateful to me! . . . Alas 
for me, 0 Lord, that my exile is so long; 
brief is time to be spent for Thy eternity, 
yet long is a single day or even hour for one 
who fears and knows not whether he is to 
offend Thee! 0 free will so enslaved to 
thy liberty if not nailed with the love and 
fear of Him who created thee! Oh when will 
that blessed day arrive which will find thee 
drowned in the infinite ocean of truth, where 
thou shalt be free to sin no longer, for thou 
shalt be safe from all misery, renaturalized 
with the life of thy God. . . . Forsake me 

not, 0 Lord. . . . Let me serve Thee always 
and do with me what Thou wilt. ^ ^ (Exclama¬ 
tion XVI.) 

As the Saint is a poetess, not only on ac¬ 
count of the divine love that inflamed her 
heart, but also because of the divine truth 
that so fully illumined her soul in contempla¬ 
tion and revealed to her infinite secrets—so 
is she in all her writings no less tender than 
profound. In any of her pages might be 
found material enough to unfold most beau¬ 
tiful idyls of tenderness and for highest 
meditations on the most sublime of moral 
and religious truths. She speaks always no 
more to the understanding than to the 
heart. 


(xi) 


PROLOGUE 


In times gone by, during days of trial and 
sadness, I sought (and found) solace for my 
spirit, and comfort for my soul, in medita¬ 
tion upon a celebrated poem of our Mother. 
According to authentic tradition, the saintly 
Mother carried it as a bookmark in her 
Breviary, no doubt frequently to comfort her 
spirit by reading it. The editors of the mag¬ 
azine Mount Carmel, regarding with exces¬ 
sive indulgence our meditations, when we 
submitted them to their inspection, thought 
it well to publish them in a series of articles, 
which saw the light many years ago in that 
Review. Afterwards that Review, giving 
them an esteem which was certainly unmer¬ 
ited, collected and published them in a con¬ 
venient edition, which was immediately ex¬ 
hausted. Many have asked me to republish 
them, with the assurance that numbers of af¬ 
flicted souls will find comfort in their sorrows 
by reading my humble pages. From some I 
have received letters of commendation, al¬ 
though it may well be guessed, they were 
prompted by excessive kindness, leaving jus¬ 
tice and truth a little in the background. At 
any rate, I am grateful and accept them as a 
stimulus. 


(xii) 


PROLOGUE 


May Divine Providence deign to make use 
once more of this, His humble instrument, in 
order to carry tiny drops of dew or little rays 
of heavenly light to other afflicted souls very 
dear to Him. The Heart of Jesus rejoices in 
consoling afflicted spirits, who by faith and 
hope are united to Him, and who weep, suffer 
—and invoke His aid. This is the loving way 
of a Father, and to second Him in such a 
work is the most worthy occupation of man. 
Happy he who with St. Paul can say, even 
in the salvation of a single soul: ‘‘We are 
the helpers and coadjutors of God” (I Cor. 
iii, 9). If our Lord deigns to make use of 
this little work, written under His gaze, the 
pen following the dictates of the heart, in 
order to carry a little warmth or light to a 
single soul, the author’s ambitions will be 
fully satisfied. 

In order to make up in some way for the 
poverty of these pages, I have added at the 
end some of the renowned poems written by 
my beloved Mother, as also her celestial 
counsels. I believe that the Saint’s clients 
will be thankful to me for furnishing them 
in such a small manual, some of our great 
Doctor’s most admirable conceptions. May 
she protect the least and last or her sons. 

The Author. 

Barcelona, Christmas, 1912. 


(xiii) 





















ST. TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 



4 





CHAPTER FIRST 


Let nothing trouble thee, 

Let nothing affright thee. 

The human heart, how large and yet how 
small. Creatures can do nothing against it. 
Whatever happens is foreseen and pre-or¬ 
dained, as well as permitted, by our Heavenly 
Father. 

The Saints, those souls so dear to God, 
dwell in heights inaccessible to the majority 
of mortals. There, nearer to heaven, they 
breathe the very atmosphere of faith, of pur¬ 
ity, of love and of filial confidence in the 
Divine Goodness. My dearest Mother, the 
peerless Saint Teresa, our inspired Doctor 
and beloved Spouse of Jesus, in order to 
show us the peace and sweet abandonment in 
the arms of God, such as is enjoyed by souls 
who have reached heights such as these, com¬ 
posed this beautiful poem: 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee. 

All things are passing; 

God only is changeless. 

Patience gains all things. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing, 

God alone sufficeth. 


— 3 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


This is one of the sweetest and most 
sublime songs that has ever resounded in this 
vale of sighs and tears, a canticle supremely 
beautiful and profoundly wise; it combines 
the greatest theological truths, the most lofty 
thoughts of philosophy, and the sweetest de¬ 
lights of poetry. It is the language of an 
angelic mind, the song of a soul who feels 
like a poet, prays like a Christian and loves 
like a Saint; and who weeps, moans and sighs 
as one exiled from heaven. 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee; 

Even though there rise up against thee, O 
my soul, the powers of earth and of dark¬ 
ness, the hatred of men and the fury of hell, 
whilst the insane passions of the multitudes 
clamor with rage, and kingdoms plot ven¬ 
geance against thee, although thou feelest 
violently the agitation of the senses whose 
temptations cause the very innocence of thy 
heart to shudder in terror, yet 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee; 

for thy will, although seemingly so frail, is 
omnipotent and invincible because nothing 
nor anyone can overpower it, if it does not 
wilfully allow itself to be conquered. 

Although thou art the plaything of thy own 
— 4 — 


LET NOTHING TROUBLE THEE 


heart, which at one time feels with sublimest 
melancholy of the majesty of heaven, and yet 
soon is smirched by the petty things of earth; 
which now on the wings of its fairy dreams 
seems to swing over the confines of time into 
eternity, and now in adversity dashes itself 
against the dull, hard rocks of sadness— 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee; 

for God has been pleased to fashion the 
human heart in a very singular and noble 
manner; so small that a tiny flower delights 
it and so large that only the infinite can fill 
it; so frail that a single word perplexes it 
and a smile of love captivates it, and so pow¬ 
erful that neither the angels of heaven with 
their wisdom, nor men with their cunning, 
nor the demons with their artfulness, can 
penetrate its sanctuary nor read its thoughts, 
nor change its inclinations, if it does not of 
itself freely consent. God alone knows the 
secret of its strength. 

If the seas become violently agitated, en¬ 
veloping with their great waves the utmost 
limits of the earth and raising against the 
very heavens the foam of their billows, filling 
the abyss with the roar of their turbulent 
commotions; if empires fall and kingdoms 
perish and the moral, religious and political 
— 5 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

world becomes wrapped in the violent whirl¬ 
wind of human passions that seem to drag in 
their wake all that is most sacred on earth— 
the innocence of the upright heart, the 
sanctity of marriage and the hearth, and 
threaten even to destroy God^s Holy Church 
and her sublime doctrine, yet 
Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee; 

for all that happens in heaven and upon 
earth, the mutations of the physical world as 
well as the disturbances of men’s moral 
nature, the wreck of cities and the ruin of 
nations—all are foreseen by God, permitted 
or ordained by an all-wise Providence, Who 
knows how to direct all things to His greater 
honor and glory and the welfare of His 
chosen ones. 

And if individuals and nations i)ossessed 
by an insane giddiness rush blindly on 
towards the precipice, carried, as it were, on 
the wings of frightful fatalism, yet 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee; 

because men and nations are carried in the 
arms of a provident God, Who is all justice, 
love and wisdom. As God is love. He directs 
all to the welfare of His elect and to show 
the splendor of His glory. As God is jus¬ 
tice, He allows nations to be frequently 
bathed in blood so that they may be purified 
— 6 — 


LET NOTHING TROUBLE THEE 


from their apostacies and rise afterwards 
rejuvenated and turn to the enjoyment of 
days full of peace and prosperity. As wis¬ 
dom, God brings forth good from evil, from 
chaos and confusion order and harmony; He 
makes light to shine from darkness and from 
the depths of corruption He causes to spring 
forth great and heroic virtues. 


— 7 — 


CHAPTER SECOND 
All things aee passing ; 

Only God is changeless. 

Continual change of everything created. 
Man^s apostacy. God^s threat. Scripture 
texts. Divine immutability. 

Let nothing trouble thee, 

Let nothing affright thee; 
because 

All things are passing; 

Only God is changeless. 

All things are passing here below; the 
world is a place of continual change. Glory 
and ignominy, our sweetest joys, our deepest 
sorrows, all pass away hand in hand. Pass¬ 
ing are the violent passions that vanish like 
smoke, as also the greatest virtues, which 
transfer themselves to heaven. Childhood 
passes with its joys, youth with its illusions, 
old age with its sorrows and even death with 
its gloomy shadows passes away. Childhood 
develops into youth, youth into old age and 
old age becomes eclipsed in death; and death 
changes into a glorious transformation of 
man, who from being terrestrial becomes ce¬ 
lestial, from temporal becomes eternal. 

In this world everything is changeable; 
nations change and cities change just as men 
change, because they and all else are carried 
away on the wings of time. 

— 8 — 


ONLY GOD IS CHANGELESS 


Here below, even the loftiest virtues are 
insecure, while the greatest falls are never 
hopeless. Samson, with all his strength, 
was vanquished; David, the saintly king, 
stained his hands with innocent blood; Solo¬ 
mon, with all his wisdom, committed the 
grossest and most detestable errors; Judas, 
the apostle, became a traitor, an apostate and 
a blasphemer against the Holy Ghost. Divine 
grace made of Manasses, the abominable, the 
zealous and penitent King of Judea; the 
famous sinner of Magdala God made the 
model for all mystical souls, and one of the 
hearts that have followed Jesus Christ with 
greatest intensity and purity of love; the first 
and foremost persecutor of Christians, God 
made the Apostle of the Gentiles; Saint 
Augustine, heretical and dissolute, God made 
the greatest of the Fathers of the Church. 

The angels who shone as the very stars of 
heaven, fell; and to take their places rise 
those who lay in sin’s abomination. The wise 
stumble while the ignorant walk in paths of 
light. Here below everything is insecure; no 
one can be proclaimed a Saint nor stigma¬ 
tized a reprobate; for man with all his de¬ 
fects or his virtues is more changeable than 
the winds. We have seen many fallen mon- 
archs; kings without sceptre and without 
crown; poverty-stricken magnates; generals 
without a sword; lofty virtues dragging 
themselves through the mire; virgins with- 
— 9 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


out modesty; the wise grown stupid; priests 
who offered up the most sacred sacrifices 
with unclean hands; sinners of the awfulest 
guilt repentant and forgiven. 

The lyre of poets is out of tune and harsh; 
the intelligence of philosophers grows stupid; 
inspiration vanishes and the eloquence of the 
rhetorician becomes childish chatter. Yea, 
even innocence itself tires of singing its can¬ 
ticles of love, because here, in time. 

All things are passing; 
and we too must pass away with time and its 
changes. 

Sooner or later the poor man’s hut and the 
palace of the magnate must crumble—as has 
happened to the pyramids of Egypt, the walls 
of Ninive and the temples of Memphis. 

Nations pass away, together with their 
laws; ^Hhe tribes of earth pass away with 
their patriarchs, republics with their magis¬ 
trates, monarchies with their kings and em¬ 
pires with their rulers” (Discourse of 
Donoso Cortes on the Bible); armies with 
their generals, science with its doctors and 
false religions with their pretentious wor¬ 
ship. 

All the grandeur of earth is like a tiny 
grain of sand which, swept by the wind from 
its shoresj leaves no memory or trace of the 
place it once occupied. 

Men who but yesterday strutted noisily 
through the world, dazzling with the splen- 
— 10 — 


ONLY GOD IS CHANGELESS 


dor of their glory, today lay silent and for¬ 
gotten in the dust. 

Where now are the immense possessions of 
Asuerus who from Susa dictated laws to the 
world, and enforced them at the edge of the 
swords of his generals! 

What has become of Xerxes^ vast posses¬ 
sions which covered whole provinces with 
their innumerable battalions! And of the 
empire of Alexander, who dragged the cap¬ 
tive kings of nations tied to his triumphal 
chariot—what remains! And where is the 
fabulous wealth of Croesus, the money king 
of antiquity! And the incomparable mon¬ 
archy of Augustus, and the boundless ambi¬ 
tion of Pompey, and the hideous vices of Nero 
and Caligula! All things are passing; men 
with their glories and their ignominies; 
Babylon, the glory of nations (Isaiah xiii, 
19); Carthage, the rival of Rome; Argos, the 
illustrious; Thebes, the city of a hundred 
gates and a thousand dominions; Corinth, 
the beautiful; Athens, the mother of arts and 
master of scholars; Rome, the conqueror; 
Jerusalem, the Holy City; Saguntum, the 
valiant, and Numantia, the invincible. 

Man has no power to check the change of 
things. Of no avail to Ninive were her high 
walls, neither to Memphis her learned 
priests, nor to Sardis her world-famous opu¬ 
lence, nor to Tyre her irresistible fleets, with 
their skilful admirals; nor to Troy her legen- 
— 11 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


dary heroes; nor to Athens the learned 
scholars of her Areopagus; nor to Eome her 
invincible warriors and her proud Senate; 
nor to Jerusalem her august temple, nor her 
majestic high priests, nor her code of holy 
laws, nor her inspired prophets who foretold 
her misfortunes. The same holds true for 
modern nations, with the bayonets of their 
soldiers and the bombs of their artillery; the 
cunning of their diplomats, and the eloquence 
of their orators, and the wisdom of their 
statesmen. Great as our present-day arro¬ 
gance and power may be, all this will pass 
away, as all that was before has passed away 
and all that is to come, urged onward by the 
impulse of a double force; that of time which 
changes all things, and that of divine justice 
which punishes with overwhelming calamities 
the sins of the nations. 

Modern nations, and Spain in particular, 
profunde peccaverunt, have sinned deeply 
(Osee, IX, 9.) In their official life they have 
flung a challenge in the face of God, or at 
any rate have bade Him sleep peacefully on 
the confines of eternity, for they can well do 
without Him. They have committed the sin 
of theft and sacrilege, and the majority of 
them personally are constantly guilty of hate¬ 
ful sins, some even of the frightful sin of 
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. But God 
has pledged Himself on His word to scatter 
the ashes of those who forsake Him to fol¬ 
low man. 


— 12 — 


ONLY GOD IS CHANGELESS 


By the mouth of Isaias He said: ^ ‘ Cursed 
be the man who, withdrawing his heart from 
God, places his confidence in creatures. ’ ^ And 
Jesus smote human presumption with this 
terrible threat: ^ H am the corner stone; and 
‘whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be 
broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it 
shall grind him to powder’ ” (Matthew xxi, 
44). But if all created things pass away, the 
word of God which threatens is eternal, and 
it is clear. It will never fail or be given the 
lie. Man may doubt and even deny it in a 
moment of weakness and folly; but time, and 
especially eternity, will see it ratified. Today 
we are witnessing a spectacle of horror never 
equaled before. Man, withdrawing his heart 
from God, has placed his confidence in self, 
in his own right arm and in his prodigious 
inventions. 

Yet this is not so new in the world, at least 
as regards the spirit that animates it. The 
amazing fact is that man should have reso¬ 
lutely risen up against Jesus Christ, the true 
Corner Stone^ who has sustained during so 
many ages the spiritual and moral edifice of 
Europe. They do not want Him in society 
or in politics; in peace or in war; in the home 
or in the school. They have bade Him go, 
they have told Him that they do not need 
Him. They have fallen against the Corner 
Stone and they will be broken to pieces; this 
stone will fall upon them to grind them and 
— 13 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


destroy their deeds, and scatter their dust 
upon the winds. For God has so promised: 

Heaven and earth shall pass away^ hut my 
ivords shall not pass away^^ (Mark, xiii, 
31). 

This prophecy hovers over all human con¬ 
tentions and strivings. Perhaps we shall all 
find ourselves enveloped in a dense moral 
whirlwind; the high and the low, those at the 
right hand and at the left; those who are 
within the sanctuary and those who are with¬ 
out; we who are consecrated to the service 
of the altar and they who serve at the throne. 
One swift breath of divine fate is enough to 
change the whole political map of Europe. 
These are not the times when anything what¬ 
soever is secure. Today the brutalized Mus¬ 
sulman reclines amongst the ruins of the 
sancta sanctorum j where in early days the 
high priest alone had access. ‘ ‘ The lion rests 
peacefully and secure as in his kingdom,where 
Semiramis and Sardanapalus accumulated 
delights and treasures (C. Cantu Hist., Vol. 
I, Book II, Chap. IV). Our flag—may it not 
be torn to shreds by the sword of some con¬ 
queror? and our sumptuous cathedrals laid 
in ruins and the palaces of our magnates be¬ 
come the dwellings of birds of prey? Be¬ 
cause now as ever. 

All things are passing. 

Yet in spite of the rapidity with which all 
that has ever existed has passed away, 

— 14 — 


ONLY GOD IS CHANGELESS 


God is changeless. 

He is the same as He was yesterday, as He 
is today and will be forever. He is the same 
God who created the world out of nothing, 
and placed in heavenly order the stars of the 
morning; who made with the sun the high 
noon and the dawn; the same who formed 
the first man from dust and who conversed 
with Adam and Eve in Paradise; the same 
who made manifest the Law on Sinai; who 
died on Calvary; who dwells in our taber¬ 
nacles and within our very souls, counting 
the throbbings of our heart, and bestowing 
upon all His warmth and life, and the breath 
with which we pronounce His adorable name. 

God presides over all changes, but He Him¬ 
self does not change or alter His thoughts. 
He listens to the prayer of the penitent, to 
the sigh of the unfortunate; to the sweet 
canticle of innocence; yea, and to the horrible 
blasphemy of the apostate; but He is change¬ 
less ; and He never is in haste. 

In the inmost recesses of His divine heart 
He inscribes the names of those who bless 
Him; and in the book of infinite justice He 
writes the names of those who blaspheme 
Him. 

Heaven becomes filled with Saints and hell 
receives its reprobates; God bestows His 
blessings on those who love Him and sends 
His chastisements upon those who refuse to 
adore Him; He pardons the repentant sinner, 
— 15 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


protects and rewards the Saints, whilst chas¬ 
tising the wicked. But He is always the same 
God whether He chastises as Judge or 
caresses as Father. 

0! my God! I delight in meditating upon 
the words of Thy prophet: ‘‘In the begin¬ 
ning, 0 Lord, Thou foundest the earth; and 
the heavens are the works of Thy hands. 
They shall perish, but Thou remainest; and 
all of them shall grow old like a garment; and 
as a vesture Thou shalt change them and they 
shall be changed. But Thou art always the 
selfsame and Thy years shall not fail.^^ 
(Psalm ci, 26-28). Thou, 0 God, art as un¬ 
changeable as the eternity which is Thy 
throne and dwelling. Thou alone art eternal. 
Thou alone dost neither die nor tire, nor 
change. Outside of Thee, 

All things are passing, 
but Thyself— 

0 God, Thou art changeless. 


16 — 


CHAPTER THIRD 
Patience gains all things. 

The power of patience. Divine patience. 
Christian patience. Humcm patience. 

The truly Christian soul possesses a cer¬ 
tain invincible virtue which, in the midst of 
the continual changes of life and the insta¬ 
bility of the human heart, gives it courage to 
overcome all obstacles, and in times of pros¬ 
perity lifts it above all that is transitory, 
drawing it to God, the immutable and eternal. 
This powerful virtue is patience, whose 
grandeur was sung by our great poetess in 
this forceful phrase: 

Patience gains all things. 

The world knows not how to appreciate all 
this sublime thought, because it is not easy 
for it to understand the supernatural 
strength of so humble a virtue, which seem¬ 
ingly lies in listless repose, but yet rules the 
world. It holds the secret of the souPs 
strength as much in the philosophic order as 
in the Christian. It is well deserving the 
praise of our Holy Doctor. Ah! when the 
Saint speaks, there spring from her angelic 
lips the most sublime truths of Christian 
philosophy, wrapped in the purest and most 
delicate affections of an ardent soul, of 
‘‘An enamored heart, that has fixed 
its thoughts on God alone.” 

— 17 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


Patience is a passive virtue, yet it out¬ 
matches the strength of the most powerful 
adversary, and develops and accumulates it 
within the heart of him who possesses it. Its 
peculiar efficacy consists, not in forcefully 
vanquishing the enemy, but in wearing out 
his strength. The patient heart never exerts 
direct resistance, but allows the enemy to 
spend his energy and strength uselessly. The 
tender sapling that grows beside the stream 
does not put forth a stubborn resistance to 
the great sweep of waters, but rather bends 
patiently, so that they may pass around it 
and over it; and afterwards it rises up again 
full of life and vigor. Thus does the patient 
man behave. 

But here, as in everything else, we may 
easily go to extremes. Passiveness of spirit 
in the face of disappointments and the tides 
of human passions can be sublime and vir¬ 
tuous, or it may degenerate and be low and 
degrading. 

There are three kinds of patience, divine 
patience, human patience, and Christian 
patience—^which is half divine and half 
human. 

An underling of the high priests’ court 
smote the adorable face of Jesus Christ with 
his fist, and the gentle Jesus held his peace. 
They stripped Him of His garments before a 
vile rabble and rent His sacred flesh with a 
cruel scourge, yet the Son of God uttered no 
— 18 — 


PATIENCE GAINS ALL THINGS 

complaint. Now, at tl^is very moment men, 
it seems, have declared war against God; 
His Holy Name is hardly spoken but to be 
outraged and insulted, now by the loathsome 
blasphemy of the tavern, now by the cultured 
and polished blasphemy of the drawing room; 
and yet God is silent. God needs not hurry; 
God has patience. Behold divine patience. 

Slaves without uttering a word obey at 
the crack of their master ^s whip. In demor¬ 
alized cities thousands of strong, vigorous 
men patiently bend under the heavy chains of 
oppression, by which a harsh master has 
bound them. Behold human patience. 

Blessed Job, having fallen from the height 
of fortune to the depth of misery, felt no re¬ 
pining towards God or indignation towards 
man, but with holy resignation he was con¬ 
tent to scrape his sores with a potsherd. Be¬ 
hold the perfect model of Christian patience, 
practiced by all of God^s elect, who, before 
and after Jesus Christ, have known how to 
sutler heroically. 

Patience, when purely human, is not ever 
elevating, and often degrading. The ills 
that result to individuals and nations through 
that stoic passiveness which deprives them of 
the energy needful to free themselves from 
their ignominious slavery, cannot be suffi¬ 
ciently deplored. On the contrary, divine 
and Christian patience is sublime and exalt- 
— 19 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


ing, because it is practiced in imitation of 
Jesus Christ. 

As to God^s patience, it manifests His 
goodness adequately, for by it He bears with 
the sinner in order that he be converted. 
Neither men nor angels will ever understand 
the sublime grandeur of Jesus Christ in His 
infinite patience. He seems greater to me in 
the praetorium than in the mansions of eter¬ 
nity, when with the eternal Father He traced 
the paths of light and marked the limits of 
the sea. Job appears to me more radiant 
when, seated on his dunghill and forsaken by 
all, he sang in sublime accents of patient sor¬ 
row, than when he sat at home, loved by his 
sons, blessed by his friends and surrounded 
with oriental opulence. 

These three kinds of patience produce dif¬ 
ferent effects because they have different 
causes. 

Jesus, as God, is omnipotent; as man He 
had at His command millions of powerful 
angels, and yet He allowed Himself to be 
seized and bound by a crowd of ruffians. Why 
does omnipotence veil itself before man^s 
weakness? In order that this weakness may 
become omnipotent. If God had not been 
patient with the frailty of His two first crea¬ 
tures, the whole human race would have be¬ 
come extinct in its very beginning. If Jesus 
Christ had not had patience to suffer, the 
human race would never have been saved. 


— 20 — 


PATIENCE GAINS ALL THINGS 


Lucifer would have triumphed in his plan of 
disconcerting the harmonies of creation, and 
heaven would not be filled with saints. God 
has had patience because He loves man. And 
this divine patience has gained all things: it 
has maintained the first plan of creation in 
spite of human prevarication; it has humbled 
Lucifer and peopled the earth with men and 
heaven with saints. 

The saintly Job, who so many centuries be¬ 
fore Jesus Christ had the glory of being the 
most perfect personification of patience, cer¬ 
tainly had no power to prevent his enemies 
from insulting him in his misfortune or to im¬ 
pede Satan from ill-treating his body, seizing 
his goods and killing his beloved sons; but he 
did have the power to rise above all these 
misfortunes and amid them to preserve peace 
of soul. He blessed God the same in adver¬ 
sity as in prosperity. He raised his heart so 
high above the world that it could not be sul¬ 
lied by the dust of earth. He suffered 
patiently not because he did not feel his woes, 
but because he had placed his innocence in 
the hands of God, who has promised to pro¬ 
tect those who confide in Him alone. And for 
this reason, while men and the devil made a 
horrible mockery of his body and of all he 
most esteemed, the heart of this Saint of 
patience reposed peacefully within the arms 
of God where it had been deposited by faith 
and hope. All truly Christian souls know 
— 21 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


how to act as did the patient Patriarch of 
the Land of Hus. 

I realize that to unbelievers and to wasted 
worldly hearts this language is unintelligible 
—a confusion of words without sense; but for 
us who have the immense happiness of being 
conscious of the truths of our faith, it is a 
luminous doctrine overflowing with consola¬ 
tion. It is not easy for the unbelieving heart 
to understand Christian truths, if it does 
not strive to love them. It is a profound 
truth, drawn from attentive observation of 
human nature, that ‘ ^ one single spark of love 
enclosed within a heart, sheds more light 
than the perusal of a hundred philosophical 
volumes. ’ ’ 

The difference between the patience of the 
Idumaean Patriarch, and consequently of 
Christianity, and the resignation of the slave 
and the man without faith or belief is this: 
the just man suffers without complaint be¬ 
cause he knows that God loves him, will de¬ 
fend him and reward with eternal glory 
his brief sufferings. The slave suffers re¬ 
signedly because he has lost the sense of his 
own dignity, or the hope of being respected 
by the rest of mankind. He has not the en¬ 
ergy to shake off his spiritual chains and 
break them to pieces in the face of his op¬ 
pressors; he has raised his eyes to heaven, 
but it seemed to him a brazen arch above him. 
He can nowhere perceive signs of a wise and 
— 22 — 


PATIENCE GAINS ALL THINGS 


just Providence, who watches the same over 
the poor and feeble as over the rich and pow¬ 
erful, and who, sooner or later, in time or in 
eternity, will cause the injustice sanctioned 
by men to be set right and to disappear. He 
does not know that he is the adopted son of 
God, with a divine right to eternal glory. He 
does not realize that this is but a transitory 
life, a stepping stone to eternal life, which is 
gained by suifering. If he looks about, he be¬ 
holds himself poor, weak and alone, with an 
endless chain of duties to perform and with¬ 
out any rights which his fellow men are 
hound to respect; he has believed that the 
law which rules the world and assigns each 
one’s destiny is power, and only power; he 
feels his lot to he a product of frightful fatal¬ 
ism. He who feels thus weak does not want 
to fight, or pray, or hope. He buries his brow 
in the dust as if to conceal his shame. 

This patience is degrading; it slays all the 
nobler energies of the soul; whilst in human 
society it causes the ruin of nations. For 
the general insensibility of the individuals, 
necessarily produces social and political 
inanition. Society is what the majority of 
the individuals who compose it and form its 
members, are. 

When the individuals suffer with only 
stoical patience the lash of their masters, he 
it wielded by a proud Roman of the time of 
Augustus, or in our times by the hand of some 
— 23 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


petty king, or a clever trickster who boasts 
the title of a party leader; when the majority 
of the individuals forming the active part of 
society have an ignoble patience and mutely 
bear their yoke, then the nation also will soon 
allow her honor to be smirched, history to be 
caricatured, and will even patiently submit 
to having her flag trampled under foot by 
some haughty conqueror. 

We Spaniards may have little Christian 
patience to boast of, but when it comes to 
human patience, there is no monk or ancho¬ 
rite who can surpass us. We are faithful 
slaves to many and divers masters; we 
have borne numerous and insulting griev¬ 
ances, whilst day by day we become more 
patient and submissive. It is this merely 
stoical patience practiced by citizens, which 
produces inertness and debility in nations. 

This torpid patience also gains all things, 
but in the way of evil. It was not such pa¬ 
tience that received the praise of our great 
Doctor and Saint of Avila, because it belittles 
and degrades men and nations. The Saint 
sang only of the sublime and great patience 
of the Christian, which uplifts the soul from 
earth to heaven. 

The patience that inspired holy Mother 
St. Teresa is not a trait of the enfeebled 
spirit, but of the lofty soul. It is the kind 
that gives strength to noble, Christian hearts, 
who, feeling themselves greater than any mis- 
— 24 — 


PATIENCE GAINS ALL THINGS 

fortune, know how to rise above all their 
trials. 

Christian patience bears all ills, yea, even 
if men might butfet and spit upon our brow; 
but it will not allow them to wound or sully 
our heart, because it teaches us to raise it 
above the reach of the darts of envy and the 
poison thrusts of slander. 

Within this precious virtue, unknown to 
the profane spirit, lies the secret of the 
strength of the just. It was this passive, hum¬ 
ble and long-suffering virtue which, finally 
conquering and triumphing over all suffer¬ 
ing, inspired my Mother in life and death, 
and which, as we will prove, effectively. 

Gains all things. 


— 25 — 


CHAPTER FOURTH 

Patience cmd human reason. The heart of 
man like unto the heart of God. It delights in 
spreading good. Patience opens the way. 
Wrath closes it. Adorable delights of trust¬ 
ing the Divine Goodness. 

It is not necessary to rise to the lofty 
heights of mystical contemplation, in order to 
understand the vast amount of virtue con¬ 
tained in patience. The philosophers of an¬ 
tiquity, even without being enlightened by 
faith, believed that in patience and modera¬ 
tion were to be found all man’s practical 
knowledge. ‘^Philosophy,” says the illus¬ 
trious Count de Maistre, “has long since 
learned that all man’s science is contained in 
these two words: Sustine et ahstine —suffer 
and abstain.” (Conferences of St. Peters¬ 
burg, I.) 

It is not strange that philosophers should 
have understood the excellence of patience, 
for, although this emanates from the clear 
light that religion sheds upon it, and from 
the supernatural power it communicates, yet 
considering this virtue only as a natural gift, 
as long as it is not degrading to human nature 
like the brutish insensibility of the slave, it 
contains something of loftiness, and is a sign 
of noble spirit. Not to be downcast by the 
greatest misfortunes, but to endure them 
— 26 — 


DELIGHTS OF TRUSTING DIVINE GOODNESS 

with serenity of soul, is the property of a 
valiant heart. To know how to be silent and 
suffer patiently amid unfavorable circum¬ 
stances which it would be useless or even 
dangerous to resist—to have patience whilst 
awaiting an opportunity for overcoming an 
enemy—this may sometimes be consummate 
prudence and at other times artful villainy; 
but it is always the height of practical judg¬ 
ment. 

Even considering patience only as the 
daughter of prudence and craftiness, it is still 
one among the greatest of human powers. 
What cannot be obtained through patience, 
will never he gained either by wisdom or 
strength without it. The kingdom of heaven 
belongs to the poor of spirit^ but the domin¬ 
ion of the world belongs to the astute and 
the prudent according to the flesh. He is not 
fit to reign who knows not how to dissem^ 
ble/^ have said all the disciples of Machi- 
avelli. The best and only honest way of dis¬ 
sembling is to suffer the importunities of 
mankind; and bearing with mankind is the 
most difficult part of patience. 

Purely natural patience and dissimulation 
are the offspring of cunning and prudence, 
and these are the masters of the world. 
Human wisdom has been able to teach noth¬ 
ing more practical to mankind, than patiently 
biding one^s time. 

If St. Teresa of Jesus did not wear upon 
— 27 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


her brow the beautiful aureole of divinely in¬ 
fused science, and, considering her only as a 
philosopher, she could still take her place 
among the greatest teachers of even human 
wisdom. Without having read the works of 
philosophers, she agreed with them in her 
great esteem for patience, and she expressed 
it in the beautiful canticle upon which we are 
meditating, with greater perfection and beau¬ 
ty than they in their academical discourses. 

The philosophers said that in moderation 
and patience was included all that man can 
know or practice in regard to virtue. And 
our Holy Mother, without attributing to this 
class either true wisdom or virtue, with per¬ 
fect exactitude and beauty sang: 

Patience gains all things. 

Yet the mind of the great Saint beheld 
wider horizons than those of frail human 
reason. When she sang thus, she was think¬ 
ing of heaven and of earth, of God and man, 
of divine and human verities and dispensa¬ 
tions. She saw that equally in the attain¬ 
ment of heaven and in treating with human 
nature, patience is the great virtue which 
gains all things. To the mind of my Mother 
patience is not the result of human sagacity, 
nor does it energize according to human cal¬ 
culations ; it is the gentle daughter of heaven, 
a supernatural virtue, a golden key with 
which we open all of God^s treasuries and 
man^s capabilities. 


— 28 — 


DELIGHTS Or THUSTING DI\TKE GOODNESS 

Patience gains aH thir.gs from Goi God 
feels ineliable sympatnv for tKose who suf¬ 
fer patiently. For tbein he reserves all the 
graces and all the tenderness of His Divine 
H eart- Jesns Christ ealLeti the peacefnl the 
s^jns of Go*i- On the other han*h the wrathful 
are insupportable to him- In this, as in every¬ 
thing else, there is a great liheness between 
the heart of Go^i and the hnmaii heart, in so 
mneh as the latter is a source of goo*i: be- 
canse onr heart, the ir.asterp>iece of creation, 
is a ec»py and a renetitioii of the heart of Go*i 
This is why they both have, in a manner, sim¬ 
ilar laws of attraction and repnlsion. 

All who are truly eminent in S4:>me branch 
of knowledge or orier of p>erfection. are of- 
fendoi by the arrogance of meiioerities and 
above all by the proud nonentities of that 
branch in which they themselves are notable. 
PresnmpttLons ignorance, arrogant weakness 
and han^ry poverty of mind are mortifying 
and olfensive to the really wise, the powerful 
and the mentaLLy rich. On the other hanm 
the greatest delight of wealthy men of noble 
heart is to ‘iry the tears of the hnmble poor; 
and it is the best joy of the powerful to pro¬ 
tect the feeble and helpless. There is not on 
this earth a joy to be eomp-areii with that felt 
by one who imparts tmth and love to another 
s*?ilL who is well dispose! and in need of 
God‘s light and warmth. In this holy joy of 
commnnion with other souls, is fonnd the 





SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


secret inspiration of Christian genius. St. 
Teresa, whilst improvising those famous 
lyrics of hers, into which she poured her 
saintly heart, found inspiration in the thought 
that her beloved mother would read them and 
feel ‘‘a hidden rapture, because these sacred 
doctrines are the ones she so deeply loves, 
and which I first learned seated on her lap and 
reclining on her breast. ’ ^ The poet, overflow¬ 
ing with enthusiasm, writes his thoughts with 
the dream that the world, or at least some kin¬ 
dred souls, will read them and feel as he feels. 
The orator is overcome with lofty emotions, 
when from his platform he communicates to 
thousands of souls the light of truth and the 
fire of love. This is why kings in the realm 
of speech rejoice more intimately than kings 
of nations. It is certain that Solomon would 
not be as happy during forty years of peace¬ 
ful reign, surrounded by all the pomp and 
splendor of the East, as was St. John 
Chrysostom, when with Christian eloquence 
he pronounced his immortal Homilies before 
auditors which often numbered many 
thousands. The deepest and most coveted joy 
of the apostle, poet, artist, indeed of all truly 
great souls, is to cause their light and love 
to spread into other souls, so that they too 
may know and venerate that which they 
themselves adore of moral or artistic beauty. 

These are the natural laws we carry im¬ 
printed deeply in our souls; similar in this 
regard are the laws of God’s heart. 

— 30 — 


DELIGHTS OF TRUSTING DIVINE GOODNESS 

God is most happy and joyful because He 
rests in His own center, that is, within Him¬ 
self, Who is All Truth, Beauty and Love. We 
suffer because upon earth we are far away 
from our true home and native destiny. This 
is why we weep and, as the poet expresses it: 
^‘Banished angels are we, that is why we are 
always sad.^’ 

As beings separated from our true center 
it is only natural that many evils should be¬ 
fall us; because evil is none other than the 
privation of some good which should be ours. 
It would indeed be a miracle if we were to 
have complete happiness here in our exile, 
where failure and weeping are so common. 
This is why we were born into the world weep¬ 
ing ; and weeping we shall die. 

All the good that consoles us and the 
strength that sustains us can come to us only 
from God, WTio is the first and only source of 
goodness and life. Hence when we become 
impatient against the adversity which must 
naturally befall us, we murmur against an all¬ 
wise Providence, who allows evil and priva¬ 
tion to exist in the world precisely because 
the world is not heaven; because the road can¬ 
not be the same as the goal, and because the 
time of trial must differ from the time of 
recompense and repose. If besides being im¬ 
patient, relying upon ourselves without 
thought of God, we become militant against 
the evils which God permits and think we are 
— 31 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


sufficient to overcome them, we thereby tell 
Him, indirectly, that we do not need Him to 
sustain us and make us happy. This often 
ends by our raising against Him a very wall 
of opposition. Herein pagan patience is the 
offspring of pride. God also is offended by 
his arrogant, weak and yet haughty crea¬ 
tures. That is why we displease Him when 
we are impatient and so He denies us the spe¬ 
cial graces of His Heart. 

Is it then necessary to resign ourselves 
with indifference to all manner of evils that 
can possibly befall us, without even a right to 
breathe a sigh or articulate a single word of 
pain? Must we allow ourselves to be dragged 
down by disappointments without showing 
any resistance whatsoever—as if we were 
beings deprived of reason, liberty and 
strength? Is this slothful passivity to be 
mistaken for Christian patience—the virtue 
so highly commended by mystics and ascetics, 
and especially by the great Doctor of Car¬ 
mel? 

No; virtue commands us to suffer, but it 
also forbids us to succumb. That slothful in¬ 
difference, which in the face of serious trials 
despoils man of all his energies, displeases 
God no less than the proud presumption that 
wishes by its own strength to scale the very 
heavens. I do not know who offends God 
most, those who whilst suffering want to 
question omnipotence for the reason of their 
— 32 — 


DELIGHTS OF TRUSTING DIVINE GOODNESS 

sorrows, or those who succumb in adversity, 
and without a thought of heaven sink down 
to the very dust. 

God did not make us for tears. He would 
not have formed the human heart always to 
be tied down to the earth. He would not have 
made it capable of such beautiful sentiments 
and lofty aspirations towards the infinite, if 
it were His pleasure to keep it forever in the 
mire of grief. His adorable will is to exalt 
and perfect the human heart by His intimate 
communications with man; for this reason 
He made our hearts most imperfect but yet 
infinitely perfectible. ^‘The Lord made man 
and He enriches him, ’ ^ says Holy Scripture. 

As Sovereign Artist, He feels an infinite 
delight in communicating to created beings 
His infinite light. His immense love and His 
incomprehensible grace. What most annoys 
Him is all that deprives Him of this holy in¬ 
tercourse with His creatures. In order to 
experience this divine joy He created other 
beings like unto Himself with whom He might 
communicate: this is the one reason for 
which angels and men were created. 

Before communicating to our minds the 
plenitude of His love and light. He sub¬ 
jected us to a test so that we ourselves might 
co-operate in the attainment of our happi¬ 
ness. This test has consisted in making us 
feel, during a certain interval, the privation 
of His light and love, so that we, desiring it, 
— 33 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


might ask for the gift and make use of our 
free will in accepting it. 

The angels felt this privation for only an 
instant. Lucifer and his companion did not 
resign themselves, thinking their natural per¬ 
fection sufficient for obtaining it, and God, of¬ 
fended by such arrogance, cast them headlong 
into the abyss of hell. 

Eve, through her womanly eagerness, had 
not the patience to wait until God should dis¬ 
close to her all the knowledge of good and 
evil. She dared to forestall God’s designs, 
and she was cast out of Eden. A portion of 
mankind have sinned like Lucifer, telling God 
they do not need Him in order to attain to the 
truth in an undefined progress. Others com¬ 
plain, like Eve, because He makes them wait 
so long, oppressed with so many cares; and 
some seem to tell Him that they ignore the 
joys of heaven; they do not feel the courage 
to strive for what they deem so difficult, pre¬ 
ferring to grovel indolently in the dust, bent 
under the weight of their anxieties, rather 
than to tread the road to heaven with its toils 
and hardships. 

The proud, who, like Lucifer, believe that 
without God they can attain to the enjoy¬ 
ment of truth and satisfy their hearts, as well 
as those who, like Eve, feel the time of trial 
too long and follow a path not marked out for 
them by God, for attaining the height of per¬ 
fection to which they are destined, as also 
— 34 — 


DELIGHTS OF TRUSTING DIVINE GOODNESS 

they who renounce the gifts of God because 
they believe them unnecessary or think they 
are too costly—all of these oppose God’s 
purpose, for He created heaven and earth for 
the pleasure of communicating to His crea¬ 
tures the effusions of His divine heart. 

But the souls who, when they feel tired, do 
not succumb nor murmur against Providence, 
but the more afflicted they feel the more they 
thirst after the light and love of heaven and 
the more eagerly implore it of God; those 
who, when persecuted and calumniated feel 
no indignation against men, and do not de¬ 
fend themselves (unless obliged to by reason 
of justice or charity), but leave everything 
in the hands of Providence, offering up all 
their trials in satisfaction for their sins— 
these are the souls who merit the sympathies 
of the Divine Heart. Souls dearest to God 
are always those who, though bowed down by 
sorrow, do not allow themselves to be de¬ 
pressed, nor place their confidence in crea¬ 
tures ; but, raising their eyes towards heaven, 
hope for consolation only from God. 

God has made the human heart marvel¬ 
ously perfectible, because He made it capa¬ 
ble of union with the infinite; and when the 
heart becomes dull and inactive. He sends 
disappointments to arouse it, and to revive 
its yearning for heaven and its hunger for 
truth, in order to have the sovereign joy of 
delighting and comforting it. This He does 
--35 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


partially here below by faith, hope and inte¬ 
rior graces, by satisfying it in heaven with 
the plenitude of truth and bliss. Behold the 
adorable delights of the Heart of God, the 
end of all His works with creatures, namely, 
to communicate to souls truth, love and eter¬ 
nal bliss. 

But God in communicating Himself to souls 
through His gifts, desires them to invoke Him 
with love and with constancy. They who do 
not suffer do not call upon Him thus, because 
they are well pleased with the things of earth. 
This is why He sends them sufferings. 

Therefore our trials are that bitterness 
which God places in the things of earth, so 
that, detaching ourselves from them, we shall 
love the things of heaven. 

Trials without patience are not acceptable 
to God, because they either cause us to mur¬ 
mur against Providence or deprive us of our 
energies and plunge us deeper in the mire of 
despondency. Sorrow and patience are the 
two wings by which we rise from earth to 
heaven and approach towards God. No one 
who has reached the use of reason has been 
saved without suffering, and no one has been 
sanctified by sorrow without patience. The 
most efficacious means of approaching the un¬ 
created source of Truth and Goodness is sor¬ 
row endured with hearty courage. 

The souls best disposed to receive God’s 
blessings are those who suffer most with 
— 36 — 


DELIGHTS OF TRUSTING DIVINE GOODNESS 


greatest resignation. This is the secret of 
the whole system of Providence in the moral 
government of the world. To communicate 
Himself to souls such as these, is the sweetest 
of the divine complacencies; and it was in 
order to enjoy them He created the world. 
To such souls and to them alone does He be¬ 
stow in abundance His infinite gifts. 

Therefore patience thus placed in union 
with sorrow, is that great power of God by 
which he gains all things. 


— 37 — 


CHAPTEE FIFTH 

Mercy more charming than justice. The 
companion of patience. A costly alms. Pa¬ 
tience overcomes the wickedness and incon¬ 
stancy of men. 

What a wonderful judge of hearts was the 
holy Mother St. Teresa. How well she un¬ 
derstood human frailty; she knew that only 

Patience gains all things, 
not from God alone, but even from men. 

We do not know why; it may be because 
men are generally more feeble than perverse; 
but it is certain that they are fonder of the 
dispensers of mercy than of the ministers of 
justice. Justice always weighs heavily on us, 
and when not tempered by mercy it causes 
positive terror. Mercy, on the contrary, is 
always smiling and lovable. It steals imper¬ 
ceptibly into the proudest and most obdurate 
hearts and conquers them by its sweetness. 

But this lovely virtue is so intimately 
united with patience, that in its principal acts 
it becomes blended with it. To bestow on a 
neighbor, and especially on those with whom 
we live, the alms dissembling their defects is 
a real work of mercy, and sometimes an act 
of sublime patience. We can give this alms 
to everyone; and we ourselves are in need of 
it; but it is often very costly. It is easy to 
— 38 — 


MERCY MORE CHARMING THAN JUSTICE 


take a coin from one’s pocket to succor the 
needs of the poor; but to have always ready 
in the heart a wealth of indulgence, gentle¬ 
ness and charity with which to conceal the de¬ 
fects of our neighbors and suffer without re¬ 
sentment their inequalities of character, is so 
difficult that it becomes impossible to a heart 
abandoned to its own resources. This is 
where the invincible power of supernatural 
patience comes to its aid. There are men who 
will perform metallic—financial—acts of 
charity, but for all they may squeeze their 
hearts they cannot extract a single drop of in¬ 
dulgent affection, in order to give to their 
equals or inferiors by the estimable alms of 
gentleness and kindly dissimulation. Pa¬ 
tience is the inexhaustible treasure of gener¬ 
ous hearts. 

The patient heart has always strength to 
love its neighbor and reasons for excusing 
him his defects. It is not unaware of the 
frailties of human nature, but it does not try 
to do away with them by fire and sword, like 
jealous spirits or imprudent ones; nor does 
it, like the flatterer, conceal his faults under 
the cloak of adulation. It knows that the 
human heart always has some good qualities, 
and for these it can esteem and even praise 
him, without any need of flattering. It never 
refers to his defects except when justice or 
charity demands it, and then only in words 
of sincere friendship and even tender affec¬ 
tion. 

— 39 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

The heart that manifests itself in this man¬ 
ner is almost omnipotent. There is no one 
who can resist it. Sooner or later it will make 
of men what it wants them to be; it will con¬ 
quer them without inflicting humiliations. 
What neither reason nor eloquence nor jus¬ 
tice could obtain will be won by the patient, 
enduring and generous heart. This is the 
secret of the Saint’s strength. 

The moral nature of a man is formed not 
by his theories, nor precisely by his actions, 
but his heart, his most interior consciousness. 
The most sacred thing—and most difficult in 
the world to understand—is the human heart 
and conscience. Nevertheless these hidden 
things are too often the ones least respected, 
and about which we presume to know most. 
If during a social gathering science is dis¬ 
cussed, there will be many who cannot join in 
the conversation, and it will become neces¬ 
sary to change its topic. But if the most dif¬ 
ficult subject in the world to discuss, that of 
the moral nature of a person, is brought up, 
everyone will think himself sufficiently well 
instructed to define it, and authorized to do 
so. And the worst of it is, that in social life 
one must bow to these judgments. Alas, that 
we must always be considered what men have 
persisted in making us. 

They will make us change our moral posi¬ 
tion many times over, they will want us to 
fill all different roles. Without having 
— 40 — 


MERCY MORE CHARMING THAN JUSTICE 


changed a particle in our heart or conscience, 
today they will raise us upon the pinnacle of 
fame and tomorrow they will cast us down 
and cover us with mire. One sentence spo¬ 
ken, and even a malicious reticence cleverly 
interjected into a conversation, or slipped in¬ 
to the columns of a newspaper, will suffice to 
change mankind's opinions about us. It is 
useless to oppose one^s self to the current 
of human opinion. Against its force there is 
no efficacious recourse but the divine stability 
of Christian patience. Man in judging the life 
of his neighbor, nearly always, even uncon¬ 
sciously, has for adviser his personal affec¬ 
tions. We can hardly ever exercise the calm¬ 
ness we display when treating of ordinary 
affairs. Never have men appeared to me so 
small as when I have seen them judging 
others. They discuss things not as they un¬ 
derstand them, but according to how they 
feel. They are guided not by the light of 
truth, clear as that of the sun, but rather by 
the sentiments of the heart, blinding and 
fluctuating as flashes of lightning. 

The souPs passions, dazzling and even 
blinding the mind, are like gushing torrents; 
they rush onward full of noise—and presently 
are still. Their strength is momentary, yet 
irresistible, whosoever attempts to confront 
them will be hurled aside as by a mighty 
whirlwind. The way to conquer them is not 
by trying to check their advance, but by se- 
— 41 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

curing a firm foothold while the impetus of 
their force lasts. Patience, in a word, forti¬ 
fies the heart and restrains it, so that it 
remains steadfast when struck by the onrush 
of human passions. At last from out of the 
tempest of passion rises the rainbow of 
peace. 

The heart that knows not how to rise above 
the fallacy of human judgments, will become 
entangled among the ruins of human repu¬ 
tations, including its own. 

Whoever allows himself to be overcome in 
this way has no right to complain of man’s 
injustice towards him, because he has not 
striven to rise above it. The most unjust in 
this regard are the very ones who complain 
most bitterly about men’s injustice in gen¬ 
eral. To expect just treatment from others, 
we must first be just in our dealings with 
them; and it is better still if we are merciful. 
But this justice can be obtained from men— 
we might almost say—^without seeking for it, 
by means of Christian patience. 

After the tempest has raged with greatest 
fury on the summit of the mountains without 
being able to disturb their calm, majestic 
grandeur, the sun’s rays shine forth with 
greater splendor upon their lofty peaks, bath¬ 
ing them in a nimbus of light. WTien men 
have striven most to harass and vex a human 
heart without succeeding, there comes a time 
when they tire of this; the passions are 
- 42 -- 


MERCY MORE CHARMING THAN JUSTICE 


stilled; men have lucid moments and are more 
apt to judge correctly. Hearts tried in this 
manner become more beautiful. The constant 
friction caused by opposition renders them 
bright and lustrous, and the light that ema¬ 
nates from souls tried by misfortune and 
sustained by patience gives them a clear in¬ 
sight into their own depths. Men cease to 
misunderstand one another, they judge them 
correctly, and especially crown their neigh¬ 
bor’s brow with the aureole of brotherly love. 

It is true that this light revealing the beau¬ 
ty of souls—the result of constant patience— 
as a rule shines forth only in the evening of 
life. Many times we fully know men only 
after they are dead. It is like the fading sun¬ 
light, that tinges the sky only after the sun 
itself has disappeared into the deep valleys 
beyond the horizon. 


-.43 — 


CHAPTER SIXTH 

Self-knowledge. How difficult it is. Pain¬ 
ful interior struggles. The heart tires or goes 
astray. The need of patience in order to hear 
with our own selves. 

Lastly, patience is the greatest preserva¬ 
tive against the weakness of our own hearts. 
With it man can obtain all things from him¬ 
self; in fact, it is no less necessary to us in 
our intimate dealings with self than in our 
social relations with others. 

This is a matter that may well be pondered 
over in the sweet shades of solitude. It solves 
problems both difficult and little known, be¬ 
cause we must begin by searching our own 
hearts, and from there go on to the fact that 
there are so few who really cultivate the sci¬ 
ence of self-knowledge. My heart is unable 
to know itself/^ said St. Augustine. It is a 
difficult thing to know others, but it is no less 
difficult to know one’s self. Chesterfield was 
amazed to find in the drawing rooms of Lon¬ 
don, scholars who had treated intimately with 
men all their lives, and yet had failed to un¬ 
derstand the human heart; but it is still more 
strange that men who have lived with them¬ 
selves so many years have not yet attained 
to self-knowledge. Two-thirds of the human 
race go down to the grave without having had 
a single intimate conversation with them- 
— 44 — 


PAINFUL INTERIOR STRUGGLES 


selves. We like to live and talk without— 
but not within. Men have a knowledge of al¬ 
most everything; it is only themselves that 
they ignore. We would certainly be in a 
very grave predicament, if there were sent to 
each one of us a detachment of Levites like 
those sent by the priests from Jerusalem to 
St. John the Baptist on the banks of the 
Jordan, asking: ‘‘Who art thou; what sayest 
thou of thyself!’^ How dost thou define thy¬ 
self? (John i, 22.) Let us but converse a 
few moments with our own hearts, and we 
will understand the great need we have of 
patience in our dealings with self. 

It is said that within each one of us there 
exists an antithetical dualism, two beings 
constantly warring with each other. In¬ 
deed, I think there are more than two; 
there are at least as many as there are com¬ 
batants that wage war together within us, be¬ 
cause all struggles suppose a plurality. With¬ 
in us, then, are battling not only the spirit 
and the flesh; conscience and the senses; the 
soul and the body; the angel and the brute, 
as Pascal would say—all of which are in 
constant mutual warfare; but even the very 
faculties of the soul are in perpetual inter¬ 
necine confusion. 

They were given to man in order to per¬ 
fect him, so that, united in complete harmony, 
they would aid each other in their functions; 
but sin wrought such havoc in human nature, 
— 45 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

that our faculties are hardly ever able mutu¬ 
ally to assist each other without breeding 
confusion. The fancy distracts the reason; 
the heart does not move in accordance with 
the will; and meanwhile the senses disturb 
the mind and the imagination, weaken the 
will and heart and exhaust and destroy them¬ 
selves. 

In most of the actions of life men, without 
being aware of it, abdicate the rights of the 
reason in favor of the fancy. In their 
thoughts they are not guided by the mind, 
which, receiving light from the lofty regions 
of truth, judges things as they really are; hut 
they allow themselves to be inspired and in¬ 
fluenced by the fancy, which sees objects al¬ 
ways in the light of its own imaginings. It 
forms and embellishes things according to the 
heart’s tastes rather than the realities of life; 
forms for itself ideas of things that do not 
exist and imagines itself living amongst 
them. In this way our fancy is always de¬ 
ceiving us, forming illusions and weaving 
golden dreams. We see things not as they 
really are, but as we would like them to be. 
If we observe carefully we find that most of 
the time we wander about deluded, thinking 
that we reason when in reality we only fancy. 
The impulses that guide our thoughts do not 
come from the serene mansions of truth, but 
from the lower abodes of the affections and 
the senses. This is why our opinions change 
— 46 — 


PAINFUL INTERIOR STRUGGLES 


oftener than the winds; they are as variable 
as the heart’s dreams and the creatures of 
fancy. There are but few men who always 
discuss things with calm judgment, because in 
certain affairs it is very difficult to free one’s 
self from the influence of the fancy and of the 
heart’s emotions. We spend most of our time 
day-dreaming, and, no doubt through fear of 
being humbled, we refrain from asking our¬ 
selves, even in the most serious cases, 
whether we are reflecting or only dreaming, 
whether we are being guided by reason or 
fancy, by emotions or by realities. We lack 
the patience to train our thoughts and con¬ 
trol our imagination. This accounts for the 
confusion often found even in the best en¬ 
dowed minds. 

This confusion descends from the mind 
down into the most hidden recesses of the 
soul, of the will, and of the heart. What the 
fancy is to the mind, the heart is to the will. 
The latter is a spiritual force, the source and 
center of the soul’s volitions and of its ener¬ 
gies, and all the graver purposes of life. The 
heart is the seat of tenderness and affection, 
of joy and all emotions. These two faculties 
are given us so as to harmonize and complete 
each other. The will contains strength and 
energy; the heart, emotion and poesy. A 
heart without will power is fickle and incon¬ 
stant; it is affected by everything and has 
much to suffer. A will bereft of the tender- 
-^47 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


ness of the heart is harsh, and wounds those 
with whom it comes in contact. A man who 
is all heart and lacks will power inspires pity. 
A man of great will power, but heartless and 
incapable of feeling, is repulsive; he is useful 
in business, but worthless in family or other 
life. 

Perfect harmony between these two facul¬ 
ties constitutes the moral perfection of man; 
but there are very few who have attained to 
this. This is where sin left its deepest mark, 
for discord between the will and the heart are 
very common. 

The heart can separate itself from the will 
in two ways, by tiring or overexerting itself. 
Conscience, for example, dictates that we 
must perform a certain painful duty. With 
our will we desire to do it and desire it sin¬ 
cerely, but the heart with its tenderness and 
sensibility rises in revolt, or at any rate can¬ 
not conform itself to the will; it grows tired 
and faint and we feel no joy, but only repug¬ 
nance in fulfilling that duty. Then it is that 
we desire but cannot feel; or, what is the same 
thing, we would desire to desire, or, as David 
would say in his beautiful language: ‘‘My 
soul hath coveted to long for Thy justifica¬ 
tions : Concupivit anima mea desiderare 
justificationes tuas^^ (Psalm cxviii, 20). 
There are times when it seems that we al¬ 
most drag our hearts along. 

It is sometimes said that it is easy to love 
— 48 — 


PAINFUL INTERIOR STRUGGLES 


and to desire. Without penetrating the deep 
secrets of philosophy to ascertain what is the 
immediate force that gently moves the will 
and heart to love, but dwelling only upon psy¬ 
chological phenomena as they present them¬ 
selves to the human mind, I maintain that 
there is nothing so difficult in life as to love, 
especially when the heart opposes itself to it. 
The will, without the aid of the heart, soon 
tires and grows discouraged. Then it is more 
difficult to desire than to act. 

This is the most common malady of the 
heart, and, as an eminent psychologist has 
said: ^‘The difficulty does not lie so much 
in controlling the heart, so that it may not 
overexert itself, hut rather in making it go.*^ 
It easily tires, weakens, becomes, as it were, 
anaemic, and dies of cold. The heart tires; 
and then the will, without its aid, weakens. 
This is the reason for the great fickleness of 
humanity. 

Nevertheless the heart sometimes over¬ 
flows with life and feels too intensely, much 
more so than we would desire. It is then that 
our thoughts wander where the will would 
not wish, and leave the latter alone. This 
is very harassing, and it has bedewed every 
corner of the world with tears. 

Wheresoever the light of the sun has 
shone, there man has stood bewailing the sor¬ 
rows of his heart. Yet no one has depicted 
them as graphically as the Prophet-King 

_ 49 _ 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


when he cried: “My heart hath forsaken me’^ 
(Ps. xxxix, 13). This thought alone is a 
whole poem in itself, a complete canticle of 
the souPs sufferings and the heart’s wander¬ 
ings. In union with St. Paul and St. Jerome, 
who sang in accents of sorrow the weakness 
and wanderings of their hearts, there have 
always ascended to heaven laments of count¬ 
less saintly souls, which form the most beau¬ 
tiful portion of Christian poetry. Alas! in 
what confusion are the minds and hearts of 
men! What a great truth spoke he who sang: 
‘ * Man is a soul in ruins! ” 

In order to be able to endure the harassing 
company of the warring beings within us, we 
must make use of all the resources of pa¬ 
tience. We must bear with the fancies and 
illusions of our mind, the inconstancies of our 
will, and the dreams of our fancy. “We are 
always children,” said Balmes, “and as a 
child we must treat our heart. With firm¬ 
ness, yes; but also with love, gentleness and 
patience. By over-severity we can gain noth¬ 
ing. The man who is irritable with himself 
will never have control of his soul. The sweet 
and original St. Francis of Sales has written 
many golden pages on the gentleness, indul¬ 
gence, and tenderness with which we must 
treat our own heart” (Devout Life, part III, 
chap. IX). A Kempis says: “That by pa¬ 
tience and humility, and the assistance of 
grace, we must conquer all the frailties of 
— 50 — 


PAINFUL INTERIOR STRUGGLES 


human nature’^ (Imitation of Christ, book I, 
chap. XIII). 

But the great eulogist of patience as the 
remedy against the weakness of our own 
hearts, is the peerless Doctor of Carmel, our 
St. Teresa. The verse upon which we are 
now meditating may be considered as the 
fifth principal one of her ascetic doctrines 
with regard to God, our neighbor and our own 
heart. She had absolute confidence in gentle¬ 
ness and perseverance, that is to say, in pa¬ 
tience. In her great work. The Interior Cas¬ 
tle of the Soul, rising to sublime, mystical 
heights, she pictures with inimitable mastery 
the heart’s inner struggles, and as a remedy 
for calming them she recommends constant 
gentleness. She does not demand self-im¬ 
patience in order to attain to sanctity and 
the victory over one’s faults. She dislikes all 
manner of violence; and she has placed abso¬ 
lute confidence in patience. She knew, and 
sang of it with that angelical grace which no 
one will ever be able to equal, that from God, 
man, and our own hearts. 

Patience alone gains all things. 


— 51 — 


CHAPTER SEVENTH 


Patience raises us towards God. God has 
need of man. How He exalts him by faith 
and hope. He enriches him—in the mind, in 
the soul, in the heart. Providence, bread and 
labor. The Evangelical Counsels. 

Patience is the immense strength of the 
weak. With it everything can be obtained 
from God, from men, and from our own 
hearts. It is a magic word, which sheds 
light in the mind and warmth in the heart. 
It distinguishes the solid virtues from appar¬ 
ent ones, and crowns knowledge with the 
aureole of sanctity. God himself has be¬ 
stowed its highest praise: The learning of a 
man is known by his patience, and his glory 
is to pass over wrongs (Prov. xix, 11). 

Patience is the greatest of human powers; 
the staff upon which he must lean who would 
rise into the moral world; it is a shield that 
casts back all the darts of calumny; it is 
the corrective in which the acid of our own 
wrath and that of others is dissolved, form¬ 
ing the inestimable salt of Christian resigna¬ 
tion ; but above all patience gives us wings to 
soar from earth to heaven, and draw nearer 
to God when the thorns here below pierce us. 
Heaven seems wholly beautiful when on 
earth we weep. The memory of God is sweet- 
— 52 — 


PATIENCE RAISES US TOWARDS GOD 


est when without being discouraged we suffer 
much. 

The heart that has been wounded and be¬ 
trayed by men and that has passed through 
the crucible of suffering, yet is always sus¬ 
tained by patience, begins to be consoled only 
when it seeks its comfort and places all its 
confidence in God. Therefore does our celes¬ 
tial poetess sing the happy lot of souls 
who, on the wings of patience, rose above the 
miseries of earth and threw themselves into 
the arms of God. And this is what she sang 
in this brief and simple phrase, so concise 
and so profoundly wise as to epitomize nearly 
the whole of Christian teaching: 

Who possesseth God wanteth nothing. 

God is the adequate object of our minds 
and hearts. The mind being made for truth 
and the heart for love and both for beauty, 
God, who is the uncreated truth and essence 
of infinite beauty and love, alone can fully 
satisfy the desires of the human soul. 

God and man, often enough without the lat¬ 
ter being aware of it, have mysterious mutual 
sympathies—they seek and in a certain way 
need each other. Man has need of God as 
the poor man of the rich, as the weak of the 
strong, as the sick of the physician, as the 
eyes of light, as the trees of sap, as the bodily 
system of blood, and as the soul of hope. 
And God also has need of man. You ask: 
How can omnipotence have need of dust and 
— 53 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


light of darkness? Ah, yes! It is indeed a 
truth which the mind cannot understand, but 
the heart feels it, loves it and adores it. God 
has need of man as the artist of the canvas 
on which he depicts his souPs greatest con¬ 
ceptions; as genius after its lofty flights 
needs another mind on which to shed its light 
and to whom it can communicate its ideals, 
another heart to warm with its ardor and en¬ 
thusiasm; as a mother needs her children to 
press to her breast and to tell them of her 
ardent love. By a mystery that neither 
angels nor men will ever be able to under¬ 
stand, God loves man and he that loves needs 
the heart he loves, to whom he may whisper 
that intimate language which the human 
tongue can scarcely articulate without pro¬ 
faning a divine language. 

In order that these two beings who thus 
need and seek each other may find each other, 
a merciful and wise Providence causes man 
to rise and God to come down; and when they 
meet they embrace, and thus united soar to 
heaven where God will reign eternally with 
His Saints (Apoc. xxii, 5). 

From this meeting and embrace between 
God and man springs the happiness of the 
human heart. According as this divine tie 
is intimate and perfect, so will the souPs hap¬ 
piness be fulfilled and its constant and ardent 
aspirations satisfied. In heaven this tie is 
perfect and indissoluble, because we will see 
— 54 — 


PATIENCE RAISES US TOWARDS GOD 


clearly and mthout figures the divine essence 
as it is, in Itself, according to the language 
of the apostle of tenderness and love. Hence 
happiness there must be most perfect, most 
complete, and eternal. 

Here on earth the tie is weak. We possess 
God only by an imperfect faith, hope and 
charity. It does not satisfy the hearths de¬ 
sires, and for this reason it is something 
fully realized only in the next life. 

Notwithstanding the present imperfection 
of this union, yet even now to possess God, 
if only by the longings of faith, hope and 
charity, is the happiest lot that can fall to us 
on earth. The heart that possesses God in 
this way, if it compares itself with those who 
do not possess Him, may well exclaim that it 
wanteth nothing. 

He has great wealth who keeps in his soul 
the treasures of faith, hope and charity for 
all the world, for God’s sake and towards 
men. Whoever has faith has nobility; he has 
no need of family pedigree or credentials of 
nobility who by a simple act of faith can trace 
his pedigree to Paradise itself and count God 
as his parental origin. He can never feel 
ashamed of his lineage who contents himself 
with his divine affiliation. Furthermore, in 
the secret of his soul he guards another claim, 
that of sanctifying grace, which gives him the 
right to look towards heaven as the eternal 
source of all nobility, and as his future home. 

— 55 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


He may be poor, lowly, uncouth, and infirm— 
it does not matter; he is none the less the 
adopted son of God, with the right to an eter¬ 
nal inheritance of peace and happiness. In 
order to enjoy it, he need only wait until he 
crosses the paternal threshold of a happy 
death. While he is on earth he is on his way. 
His arrival will be death, which for the Chris¬ 
tian who has faith and charity is but a slum¬ 
ber whose awakening will be within the arms 
of God. Amongst men of faith, of charity 
and of hope, there can be no class disinherited 
nor any plebeians; all are noblemen and 
princes. The titles of our greatness are con¬ 
tained in this document given to us by God 
Himself —I have said: Ye are gods and all 
the sons of the Most High (Psalm Ixxxi, 6). 

On the other hand, how poor and desolate 
is the soul bereft of faith; who knows not 
what it is, from whence it came, nor whither 
it is going! How lonely the breast destitute 
of infinite hopes and longings! How sad the 
heart that does not love with a love that shall 
be eternal! Unbelievers wilfully forsake 
their royal prerogatives, destroy the titles of 
their divine adoption, and renounce their 
heavenly inheritance. Against such as these 
has God pronounced His terrible sentence of 
degradation and seclusion from Paradise. 

Immensely rich is he who possesses God; 
incomprehensibly poor is he who is bereft of 
Him. Whoever possesses Him in this world 
— 56 — 


PATIENCE RAISES US TOWARDS GOD 


has all he needs during his brief sojourn here 
below; for he has faith, hope and charity, and 
these are all he needs, inasmuch as he is a 
traveler who goes quickly on from time to 
eternity, from earth to heaven. 

And as what is secondary always follows 
what is primary, so these spiritual gifts of 
divine faith and grace are followed by others 
of a precious though inferior order. God, in 
uniting himself to man by grace, enriches him 
so that he lacks nothing, not only in the spir¬ 
itual order, but also in the intellectual, moral 
and material order, inasmuch as these latter 
are necessary for the conservation of the 
first. 

Who hath God wcmteth nothing, even in 
the intellectual order. 

He may be neither a mathematician, nor an 
astronomer, nor a historian, nor a rhetorician, 
nor versed in any human science whatsoever; 
but he has what De Maistre called with much 
inspiration the instinct of truth. 

People who are virtuous and filled with 
God feel the truth; they are able to distin¬ 
guish it in as far as it is necessary for the 
principal acts of their lives; they have a clear 
and steady light, not proceeding from any 
human institution, illuminating them without 
dazzling them, and which bestows on them an 
abundance of practical religious sense. They 
have not sought truth by means of any philo¬ 
sophical system, and yet they are replenished 
— 57 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

with it. It sometimes seems as if their souls 
are bathed in a veritable ocean of light. 

They know God, who is the light, and this 
radiant knowledge shines not only on the 
conscience and heart, but also sheds rays on 
the events of their life, and, although living 
in the same circumstances as the rest of man¬ 
kind, it gives them a great advantage over 
them. ‘‘The science of God,^’ says the illus¬ 
trious Donoso Cortes, “imparts to those who 
possess it prudence and strength, because at 
the same time it stimulates and expands the 
mind—I do not know of any man accustomed 
to converse with God and exercise himself in 
divine contemplation, who, although placed in 
the same circumstances as the rest of man¬ 
kind, does not surpass them in that practical 
and prudent judgment called good sense,*^ 
And the renowned Gaume adds: “ It is from 
thence must we look for the science of life, 
sound judgment, the truth of propositions, 
the knowledge of the synthesis which com¬ 
bines the end with the means and the means 
with the end, the practical discernment of 
things—lifers great teacher, as Bossuet used 
to call it.’^ 

Time testifies to the truth of these asser¬ 
tions. When our rulers were men filled with 
the spirit of God, such as Eecaredo, St. Fer¬ 
dinand, Cisneros and Isabel the Catholic, lit¬ 
tle was said about truth and virtue, and much 
done. In these times of unbelief, statesmen 
— 58 — 


PATIENCE RAISES US TOWARDS GOD 


have withdrawn from God, at any rate they 
do not want Him at their side while they leg¬ 
islate. You cannot deny their talent, for they 
are scholars and doctors and speak with fas¬ 
cinating eloquence; but good sense is lacking. 
In their minds there is li^t, but it is an arti¬ 
ficial light, which stupefies and dazzles, kill¬ 
ing the noble energies of the souls of individ¬ 
uals and of nations. Ah! it is because these 
minds have not God; and if the mind that 
hath God leanteth nothing^ the mind bereft of 
Him bais scarcely anything of avaiL 

Neither can they who possess God lack any¬ 
thing either in the moral or emotional order. 
Because grace not only enlightens the mind 
by faith, but through the other theological 
virtues it strengthens the will and inflames 
the heart; and this divine fire neutralizes the 
flame of the senses. Then the law of God be¬ 
comes sweet and easy, weariness and languor 
become things of the past. AH our disorderly 
passions are silent, whilst the heart, gently 
(tilated with the sweetness of divine grace, 
runs swiftly along the path of the most ardu¬ 
ous duties. 

Even in the material order does God favor 
abundantly those who possess Him. The 
words to this effect are clear and definite: 
‘‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His 
justice, and aJl these things shall he added un¬ 
to ycru*^ (Luke xii, 31). 

By no means does this signify that we are 
— 59 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

dispensed from the law of labor. God does 
not want us idle. In the material order, the 
same as in the spiritual order, He requires 
our co-operation. He gives us grace and with 
this we have all the necessary helps for sal¬ 
vation; but we must make use of it by prac¬ 
ticing acts of virtue; it is thus that we shall 
save our souls. In the material order man 
plans his work and God blesses it and gives 
him abundant graces. Man plows and sows 
the seed, but God causes it to grow and bear 
fruit. With man’s labor and God’s blessing 
there can be nothing wanting to ultimate per¬ 
fection in the material order. Yet even from 
the law of material labor has Providence 
partly dispensed those who consecrate them¬ 
selves completely to His service. The pas¬ 
sage of the Holy Gospel which relates how 
Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed this law, 
is one of the sweetest and most tender of 
Holy Scripture. ‘‘Therefore I say to you, 
be not solicitous for your life, what you shall 
eat, nor for your body, what you shall put 
on. Behold the birds of the air, for they 
neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into 
bams; and your heavenly Father feedeth 
them. Are you not of much more value than 
they? . . . Consider the lilies of the field, 
how they grow: they labor not, neither do 
they spin. But I say to you, that not even 
Solomon in all His glory was arrayed as one 
of these. And if the grass of the field, which 
— 60 — 


PATIENCE RAISES US TOWARDS GOD 


is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, 
God doth so clothe: how much more you, 0 
ye of little faith! . . (Matt, vi., 25-30). 
‘‘And seek not you what you shall eat or 
what you shall drink; . . . But your Father 
knoweth that you have need of these things ^ ’ 
(Luke xii, 29, 30). 

God has therefore solemnly pledged His 
word of honor. Those who consecrate them¬ 
selves entirely to His service will be wanting 
in nothing, even as the birds of the air and 
the lilies of the field want nothing. For two 
thousand years, uncounted thousands of 
young men and maidens have continually 
been seen to renounce everything, be it large 
or small, and leave their paternal homes, 
without more means of support than this 
beautiful institution of the Holy Gospel. Un¬ 
numbered heroes have crossed seas and con¬ 
tinents, trusting entirely to God’s Providence 
for their support. The world has ridiculed 
and scoffed at them, yet men, always moved 
by a secret impulse, have found their way 
into the desert or to the door of the lowly 
hut in order to carry them a piece of bread. 
This is the ever-living miracle existing even 
in these days of utter indifference. 

It is divine Providence, who teaches us to¬ 
day as ever, that in no matter what sphere he 
lives, he 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 


— 61 


CHAPTER EICHTH 

Our Holy Mother St, Teresa, Her pro¬ 
found and practical knowledge of divine 
things and of the human heart. Her wonder- 
ful terseness of expression. Immense void in 
the human soul. It com have or possess God, 
both in this world and in the next. 

It is not easy to understand all of the truths 
enclosed in a single verse of the canticles 
composed by the inspired poetess of Carmel. 
Her thoughts rise to such heights and her 
flights are at times so varied, that it becomes 
almost impossible to follow her. 

Her language seems divine, not only for its 
aesthetic beauty, but above all for deep pene¬ 
tration in divine truth. With a single word, 
with the briefest phrases, she expresses 
great truths of a very distinct nature. Her 
thoughts may be studied in different lights, 
and yet they always are noble, lofty, lumi¬ 
nous and full of wisdom. Her words are rays 
of light that shed forth sparks of fire that 
enkindle our hearts. 

A lady of distinguished and cultured 
society, a holy nun and privileged Spouse of 
Jesus Christ, she yet practically knows the 
deceitfulness of the world, the charms of vir¬ 
tue, and the secrets of the Heart of God. She 
dwelt more in heaven than on earth; she had 
familiar intercourse with angels and saints: 

— 62 — 


OUR HOLY MOTHER SAINT TERESA 


the Blessed Virgin often visited her, and she 
often saw at her side Our Divine Lord him 
self. Like another St. Paul, she was raised, 
not once, but many times, in wonderful ecsta¬ 
sies to heaven, and in spirit she traversed the 
eternal mansions of bliss. There she recog¬ 
nized some of her relatives and friends, 
among whom were her saintly parents. (Life, 
chap. XXXVIII, No. 1). The mystery of the 
Blessed Trinity was manifested to her in 
marvelous light, as the all-attracting source 
of the souPs happiness. Purgatory and hell 
were also shown to her, and for a few brief 
moments she experienced the terrible pains 
of those dreary abysses. 

She had therefore a practical knowledge of 
the greater part of the mysteries of our holy 
religion, superior to that of Dante. She de¬ 
scribes to us the mysteries beyond the grave. 

Possessing thus a profound and practical 
knowledge of the human heart and of the 
mysteries of our divine religion, she spoke 
with clear, discerning knowledge, and her 
thoughts are luminous beacon lights reflecting 
truth, both natural and revealed. They il¬ 
lumine the tortuous paths of this life and 
give us a glimpse into the deep secrets of 
eternity. The writings of our Saint taught 
and ravished with delight and admiration the 
gentle soul of St. Francis of Sales and St. 
Alphonsus Liguori, as well as the genius of 
Bosuet and the marvelous talent of Leibnitz. 

— 63 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


In loftiness and grandeur, and especially in 
the beautiful freedom with which she ex¬ 
presses her thoughts, she resembles the holy 
prophets of old. These, in a single actual 
vision, would foresee events the most uncon¬ 
nected and which were distant from each 
other thousands and thousands of years. In 
the same way they frequently announced the 
future as past. In a like manner, the Saint 
in her writings speaks with the same readi¬ 
ness of the most simple and transcendental 
matters. There are solemn moments in which 
she seems to rest upon the threshold of time 
and of eternity, unveiling the vast boundaries 
of the visible and invisible worlds; for she 
tells us with astonishing clearness and won¬ 
derful precision of things temporal as well as 
eternal. 

At times it seems that she participates in 
angelical knowledge; for if the angels contain 
in very few ideas their extensive knowledge, 
the most hidden secrets of nature as well as 
intellectual truths, St. Teresa sang some¬ 
times in a single phrase the attitude of Di¬ 
vine Providence in heaven and on earth, with 
regard to the human race. 

No one has ever been able to express in a 
more exact and concise manner than she did, 
the sublime happiness of the heart that pos¬ 
sesses God, now by faith in this life, again by 
the beatific vision in heaven. Ascetics have 
written innumerable treatises to prove the 
— 64 — 


OUR HOLY MOTHER SAINT TERESA 


peace, joy and divine consolation experienced 
by hearts, who with unbounded confidence 
throw themselves into the arms of God. The¬ 
ologians have written massive volumes ex¬ 
plaining the happiness of souls who in heaven 
enjoy the unveiled beauty of the Deity. Our 
Saint has spoken less and said much more; in 
a single phrase she has sung of the action of 
Divine Providence on souls, and the joys God 
imparts to them in time as well as in eter¬ 
nity; 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

This thought is true in every sense and be¬ 
comes more beautiful, the greater the height 
of vision in which we study it. We do not 
know whether the Saint wrote it after pro¬ 
longed meditation and experience in the 
blessings which God showers upon those who, 
in this life, surrender themselves to Him; or 
whether she composed it during moments of 
divine inspiration, when in ecstacy she was 
raised to heaven and allowed to contemplate 
the joys of eternal bliss. We are ignorant as 
to whether she wished to set forth the benefi¬ 
cent action of Providence upon hearts that 
confide in God alone, or if with a single stroke 
of the pen she wished to portray the divine 
fulness of love and the eternal joys of the 
Blessed, related as if by one who has actually 
seen and tasted them. But it is certain that 
she expresses all this with a clearness and 
accuracy that is astonishing. 

— 65 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


This thought, as applied to the inhabitants 
of earth, is a synthesis of the Holy Gospel, a 
compendium of Divine Providence in EQs 
action on souls who believe and hope. Ap¬ 
plied to those who are already in possession 
of heaven, it is the clearest and most compen¬ 
dious explanation of Beatitude. More could 
not be said, nor in less words. Everything 
that is said afterwards will be but comments 
on this thought, for nothing can be added that 
it does not virtually express. 

Who hath God by faith and hope in this 
life, wanteth nothing he can need on his brief 
journey from earth towards heaven. 

But who hath God in heaven with that per¬ 
fect possession, the eternal and indissoluble 
tie of love and light peculiar to eternal bliss, 
wanteth nothing in order to satisfy the in¬ 
finite capacity of his mind, the ardent longing 
of his heart and his souPs most sublime as¬ 
pirations. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

Ah! This is a wonderful thought; one of 
the most beautiful that ever blossomed from 
the pen of our celestial Doctor. Herein are 
virtually explained the most difficult mys¬ 
teries of human life. Herein lies material for 
assiduous meditation for the most brilliant 
minds, the most ardent hearts and the most 
inspired genius. Reason, genius, sentiment, 
all have in this single phrase most ample 
scope in which to bask at will in divine sun- 
— 66 — 


OUR HOLY MOTHER SAINT TERESA 

light, without ever reaching its confines. 
Herein are compended theology and philoso¬ 
phy. 

Who hath God . . . But, what? Can we 
possess God? Can dust hold immensity? 
Yes. But how, in how many ways? In order 
to hold God, what relations are possible? 
Which of these are already established? In 
what manner do we actually hold them and 
how do we hope to complete them? 

Behold the sum total of theology, all of the 
transcendental philosophy of the world, and 
even the entire history of the human race. 
For all is man^s and man is God^s (I Cor. hi, 
22 and 23). 

Our Saint, uplifted on the wings of faith, 
sets forth, not only as possible hut as real, 
that divine longing of God for man. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

Can there be a single moment in which 
there is nothing wanting to the human spirit ? 
Profound mysteries at once present them¬ 
selves to the human soul by the mere utter¬ 
ance of these words. We do not know, now, 
even how much is wanting to us, for no one 
has sounded the immense abyss of the human 
soul. The more we give to our nature, the 
more it desires, the greater is its hunger, the 
more it wants. The great void of our souls 
is like the space wherein roll those globes of 
light called stars. The greater the telescopic 
power for penetrating into the depth of space, 
— 67 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


the more planets are discovered. Even the 
depths of the heavens have not been sounded, 
and much less those of the human heart. Our 
Saint seems to have known the emptiness of 
the heart, for she knows how it can be filled, 
which is by possessing God. In order that 
nothing may be wanting to the heart, an ob¬ 
ject adequate to its capacity must be given to 
it. The heart is made in the image of the 
infinite, therefore it must be given to God, 
infinite being; then only will it want nothing, 
because forever and in all things it will be a 
profound, marvelous and consoling truth that. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 


- 68 -^ 


CHAPTER NINTH 


How we shall possess God in heaven. He 
tvill satisfy the mind—the will—the heart — 
the senses. Lift up your hearts. 

In order that God may satisfy all the crav¬ 
ings of human nature, and in such a way that 
man will be able to say in all truth that in 
possessing God he wants nothingy it is neces¬ 
sary that between God and man there exist a 
bond, intimate, perfect and eternal; so that 
man possesses God in a real, immediate, com¬ 
plete and absolute manner. This is reserved 
for that life above which is the true life. 

In it, according to Catholic dogma, the soul 
will hold God in a perfect, absolute and eter¬ 
nal possession, because it will unite itself to 
Him intimately and in reality, loving Him 
without measure and knowing Him not in 
enigmas or through intermediate ideas, but 
by immediate and intuitive vision. There the 
divine union on the part of man will he per¬ 
fect and total, and his happiness complete and 
eternal. The blessed can well sing with the 
Carmelite poetess: 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

In heaven there will not be a single human 
faculty that will not experience a joyous 
satiety without weariness. Nothing will be 
wanting to the mind, for there will be the 
— 69 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

clear light of truth. Not a light such as in the 
world illumines the mind. This earthly light 
never manifests itself but through partial 
shadows; it enlarges the soul without ever be¬ 
ing able to fill it, because it is a slender and 
limited light. But the heavenly light enjoyed 
by the blessed is full, perfect and inexhaust¬ 
ible, giving joy and satiety to the mind, with¬ 
out producing weariness of the spirit. Un¬ 
created light, infinite, and author of all that 
exists. All luminous things participate in 
its splendor; it contains, or it is, the principal 
source of the two states, real and ideal; it is 
the luminous torch from whence all created 
minds receive their light, and it is the pri¬ 
mary, efficient source that imparts being to all 
beings. It is the formal and adequate limit 
of all intelligences. It is the whole of uncre¬ 
ated truth, and, because it contains them as 
their source, represents all created truth. 
Therefore in this divine light are contained 
all possible truth. Therefore it is metaphys¬ 
ically impossible for the human mind to have 
obtained that divine light and not be com¬ 
pletely satisfied. If in possessing all of the 
truth therein contained the immense craving 
of the created mind were not fully satisfied, 
it would be desiring something beyond the 
essential reason of truth, and this is absurd; 
as absurd as for the corporeal eyes to see the 
invisible, namely, that which has neither light 
nor color, nor the sense of touch to feel the 
— 70 — 


HOW WE SHALL POSSESS GOD 


intangible. No, nothing will he wanting to the 
mind, when in heaven it comes into the pos¬ 
session of God; eternally happy, it will bask 
in that immense sea of light, with more free¬ 
dom than the clouds and winds as they sail 
beneath the blue canopy of the firmament 
without ever going beyond its immense con¬ 
fines ; neither will it be able even to desire it. 

Nothing will be wanting to the will because 
the light of the intellect necessarily reflecting 
upon it, will cause happiness and perfect 
satiety. These two faculties having been cre¬ 
ated in order to guide one another, will walk 
in perfect harmony; the one cannot still be 
on its way if the other has already reached 
its destination. The intellect being eternally 
filled with ecstasy in the intuitive contempla¬ 
tion of the uncreated truth, the will also must 
of necessity be rapt in the ineffable enjoy¬ 
ment of the Beatific Goodness. 

In the same manner as the Divine Essence 
contains in itself all truth, it includes also all 
goodness, created and uncreated, because it is 
the essential goodness and efficient source of 
all goodness and beauty; and in the same 
manner as it satiates the mind with truth, it 
will also satisfy the will eternally by love of 
goodness and enjoyment of beauty. 

St. Augustine spoke with great certainty in 
saying of heavenly Beatitude that ‘Gt is the 
enjoyment of truth: Gaudium de veritate. 
(Confes., Bk. LX, chap. XXXIII.) 

— 71 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


Nothing will he wcmting there to the heart 
or any of the other sensitive faculties, whose 
functions complete man^s perfection. The 
possession of God does not destroy nature, 
but, on the contrary, completes it. So there¬ 
fore, besides those joys of a purely spiritual 
nature, belonging to the mind and to the will, 
there will exist in heaven all those corporeal 
functions, which, without involving any kind 
of imperfection, unite in completing human 
nature. Above all we shall not want in those 
delicate affections of holy love, that tender¬ 
ness and refined sensibility, whose seat is the 
heart, and which frequently form the distinc¬ 
tive character and noble crown of the inno¬ 
cence of saintly souls. 

Without doubt these sensible affections are 
not essential to blessedness, nor can they 
augment intensively the happiness of the 
Saints; but neither do they impede it. Mate¬ 
rial joys do not form an essential part of 
blessedness, but are its ultimate completion. 

There are some orators and ascetics who 
are accustomed to represent heaven to us in 
such a purely spiritual and abstract manner, 
that it requires all the effort of assiduous 
meditation in order to desire it. When treat¬ 
ing of heaven they can speak of nothing but 
God, infinite in goodness and beauty, sur¬ 
rounded by light, and holding the mind and 
will in perpetual ecstasy. Though the fancy, 
the heart and the senses are faculties not so 
— 72 — 


HOW WE SHALL POSSESS GOD 


noble as intelligence and will, yet they are not 
to be despised, nor considered as if they were 
to remain in a state of eternal slumber. 

This way of looking at heaven may be very 
lofty, yet it little suffices to our actual mode 
of being. It is not enough to expose a truth; 
we must expose it whole and entire, and if 
possible (and it can always be done), we must 
in some way connect it with the heart, seeing 
that it must pass through this organ in order 
to be believed and at the same time put into 
practice. In the present case, the whole truth 
and conformable with all our most ten¬ 
der sentiments, is that when we shall fully 
come to possess God in heaven, in addition to 
the essential pleasure of the mind and will, 
we shall also experience the pure joys of the 
senses, and especially those whose source is 
the heart. This is the doctrine of St. Thomas, 
and after him, of all Christian theologians; 
and it is the only one that can satisfy all the 
yearnings and aspirations of the human soul. 

‘^Who knows, then,’^ says Balmes, ‘‘but 
that the will, even after this life, will be sur¬ 
rounded by affections such as it now feels, 
well purified from the coarser part which 
come from its union here below, that op¬ 
presses the soul? There does not seem to be 
any intrinsic repugnance in this. And if 
philosophical questions could be solved by 
sentiment, I would dare to conjecture that 
this mutual union of the faculties which we 


— 73 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


call heart does not remain in the grave, but 
takes flight with the soul to the immortal re¬ 
gions. ^ ^ 

And Monsignor Bougaud beautifully ex¬ 
presses this truth: ‘ ^ If I live in heaven, why 
should not all my dear ones live there also? 
... I shall recognize them and perfect the life 
of friendship, love and paternity that here had 
only been shadowed forth. There I will give 
them amplitude. As a son, I will go back over 
the long line of my ancestors to their very 
beginning, and I shall recognize them all. As 
father, I will go back over that of my sons 
until the day when my race shall have be¬ 
come extinct, through my own fault or be¬ 
cause God so wills it. I shall again find my 
friends and all those I have loved, and then 
I will love them truly. We will laugh to¬ 
gether over what we then called love. Such 
is my absolute faith. . . . This life that now 
we here enjoy, of the family, of friendship, 
love and society, will be that of the mind, per¬ 
fected.’’ 

He then gathers together the echoes of tra¬ 
dition and of the Holy Fathers, and from the 
times of Tertullian to those of Fenelon, 
proves that all great souls have professed 
these tender truths, and he is provoked at 
those false mystics, who freeze the soul, and 
whose foolish doctrines open yawning gulfs 
between the most noble instincts of the human 
heart and religion. (Bougaud, Christianity 
and Our Own Times.) 

— 74 — 


HOW WE SHALL POSSESS GOD 


As to just when those joys of the senses 
shall begin in heaven, according to the teach¬ 
ing of St. Thomas, the Saints will not enjoy 
sensible delights until their souls shall have 
become reunited to their bodies after the gen¬ 
eral resurrection. Until then, eternal bliss 
will not attain its final completion. But at all 
events this great truth is ever certain, that 
sooner or later. 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

And what hind of function and sensible 
joys will there be in heaven! Leaving aside 
the extravagant opinions, there is no doubt 
but that there must be excluded from heaven 
all those sensible functions, and consequently 
their delights, which are intended exclusively 
to provide for the precise individual or spe¬ 
cific needs of human life in this world. We 
will not have the use of food or drink, accord¬ 
ing to the teachings of the apostle. (Rom. 
xiv, 17, and I Cor. vi, 13.) 

Let us conclude this picture with these 
beautiful words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who, in replying to the Sadducees when they 
insidiously asked Him if in heaven there 
would be certain pleasures, gave them this 
admirable lesson of chastity: ‘‘You err, not 
knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of 
God. For in the resurrection they shall 
neither marry nor be married; but they shall 
be as the angels of God in heaven.’’ (Matt, 
xxii, 29, 30.) 

— 75 -- 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


The heart, the fancy, the sight, the hear¬ 
ing and the touch, will not be in perpetual 
slumber, but in most perfect and sweet use. 
The perfection, harmony and beauty of their 
actions and the intensity of their joys we can¬ 
not even imagine. David, in contemplating, 
the glory of heaven, in prophetic vision tells 
us that his soul remained absorbed in ecstasy, 
and in conclusion he adds: ‘‘My heart and 
my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.^’ 
(Psalm Ixxxiii, 3.) 

So, according to Catholic doctrine. Beati¬ 
tude is as perfect and faultless in heaven as 
it is fragrant with purity and replete with 
beauty. No imperfection shall be found in 
human nature there, nor does it forget the 
use of any legitimate faculty. Whatever of 
tenderness, of purity, of beauty and of the 
sublime that the human soul can conceive and 
desire is found there, raised to its highest 
degree of perfection and joy. 

Do you wish to know, my soul, what you 
will enjoy when you come to possess God? St. 
Paul saw and heard it, and he said that 
human language had not words to express it. 
Holy Mother St. Teresa saw and foretasted 
it, and when she tried to express the ineffable 
joys of the soul united to God in an eternal 
embrace, she could only falter through these 
beautiful lines: 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing, 

— 76 — 


HOW WE SHALL POSSESS GOD 


for therein lies the fulfilment of all that the 
most ardent soul can desire. 

Oh! restless human heart, believe, hope and 
expand, as you gaze towards heaven, for high 
though your thoughts may soar, you will 
never be left wanting! 

If you love and dream on earth, you will 
be very unhappy, because a predisposition to 
devotional tenderness is a forerunner creden¬ 
tial of sutfering. Look at all beautiful and 
tender souls and you will almost always find 
them tearful. For every friendship you will 
encounter a deception, for every illusion a 
disenchantment, for every favor ingratitude. 
Nearly every beautiful and sublime thought 
is in reality but an illusion, a dream that van¬ 
ishes as soon as it comes in contact with the 
strong glare of prosaic reality. 

But if you place your love and hope in 
heaven, you may enlarge the horizon of your 
hopes, even unto the infinite, because it is cer¬ 
tain that whoever directs his thoughts 
towards heaven, 

‘‘As he hopes, so he obtains. 

Place then your faith, your hope and love 
in heaven, and heap together the dreams of 
your peaceful childhood, ardent youth, and 
others that have passed by with lightning 
speed, leaving through their contact a spark 
of holy inspiration; unite them to your most 
ardent desires of truth and holy tenderness, 
— 77 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

centuplicate all the fancies of the human soul, 
and as much as you are able to perceive of 
sublime, beautiful, tender and pure—yet you 
will find all and more than this complete in 
heaven, where nothing is wanting; because 
you will be sweetly inebriated with the abun¬ 
dance of the house of God and you will drink 
of the torrents of divine delights. 

For there you will possess God, who is the 
fountain of life, and in every case this rule 
holds true, in heaven and upon earth, in 
poetry and in dogma and in ascetics, that 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 


— 78 — 


CHAPTER TENTH 
God alone sufficeth. 

Why? How can harmony he established 
amongst our faculties? Dividing line between 
Catholicism and Rationalism, The impotency 
of the latter, A doctrine degrading to humcm 
dignity, 

God alone sufficeth, 

is the last accent from the divinely inspired 
canticle of holy Mother St. Teresa. 

It is a sigh of the exiled heart, whose sweet 
echoes constantly reverberate in all souls who 
meditate, in all breasts that feel, and in all 
hearts that love and hope. 

It is a formula simple and clear, which 
summarizes all the longings of the soul and 
the ills of the human race, whilst one wanders 
far from his sweet homeland, heaven. 

This thought is not an amplification of the 
former, it is its antithesis. The Saint, up¬ 
lifted on the wings of faith, and held in an 
ecstasy of lofty contemplation knew practi¬ 
cally that God of Himself, without help from 
anyone, could fill all the needs of the human 
heart in this world and satisfy the immense 
aspirations of our souls in the next. With 
the simplicity and tenderness of a virgin and 
the grace of an angel, she sang this great 
Christian dogma, saying: 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

~^ 79 ^ 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

But it was well to complete and illustrate 
further this consoling truth, by placing over 
against it the impotency of all other beings 
to satisfy the soul. It is not enough to com¬ 
fort the heart, by telling it that in God it will 
find the fulfilment of all its desires. As God 
dwells so high above, and as it is always 
hard to raise the heart on high, it is neces¬ 
sary to undeceive it, and convince it that out¬ 
side of God it will never be able to find per¬ 
fect satisfaction. Our sublime Carmelite Doc¬ 
tor, taught this second truth of the general 
impotency of all beings in order to satisfy the 
continual aspirations of the soul, expressing 
it in this most beautiful phrase, which is a 
compendium of philosophy and history: 

God alone sufficeth. 

God of Himself is enough to constitute the 
perfect happiness of the human heart; but 
outside of God, nothing sufficeth it, nothing 
fills it. 

It is satisfied neither with talents, riches, 
honors, pleasures, men, nor angels; there is 
nothing on earth in time, or in eternity, out¬ 
side of God, that can pacify the spirit; be¬ 
cause it is an indisputable truth of dogma, 
philosophy and history, that 

God alone sufficeth. 

He who has placed his thoughts, his heart 
and his confidence in God, has everything, 
whether in his place of exile or in heaven; for 
— 80 — 


GOD ALONE SUFFICETH 

lie possesses God, and it is also a very certain 
truth that 

Who hath God, wanteth nothing. 

For even though a single man could unite 
in his person in order to enjoy them—at the 
same time and for all eternity—the wisdom of 
Solomon, the glory of Cyrus, the victories of 
Alexander, the richness of Crcesus and the 
delights of Corinth, it would be as though he 
had nothing; for all human glory, the most 
refined pleasures, and all the opulence of the 
Orient, only entertain the heart; they will 
never satisfy it; and they soon become tedi¬ 
ous and tiresome, because all the joys of cre¬ 
ation are not adequate to the capacity of the 
rational soul, inasmuch as these joys must 
needs be limited and the aspirations of the 
soul are infinite. On this account the inge¬ 
nuity of man, which tires itself in seeking 
means wherewith to pacify the human heart 
so that it may be happy on earth, will always 
find itself confronted by this imperishable 
truth: 

God alone sufficeth. 

A man may have at his disposal men with 
all their resources, the swords of generals, 
the science of scholars, the genius of artists, 
the support of the great and the applause of 
the public; talents, fortunes and eloquence, 
cunning and all the gifts of nature; but if 
he has not God, he is nothing, he has nothing, 
he is worth nothing, he can do nothing; his 
— 81 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


glory will all fade into smoke; it will pass by 
like a shadow. The farthest his royal glory 
will ever reach, is the grave. There it will at 
last end, and sooner or later God will mock 
him and will crush his pride, humble his ar¬ 
rogance, and play with proud human might as 
the depths of the ocean sport with an empty 
shell, or as the tempests and hurricanes play 
with the fallen leaves of autumn. 

And so the answer given to human arro¬ 
gance by philosophy and history, individuals 
and nations, reason and sentiment, poetry, re¬ 
ligion and genius, will ever be that 
God alone sufficeth. 

And why is God alone sufficient for man? 
Where is the reason of this dogma? It will 
be found in the very depth of the human soul. 

It is evident to all who even occasionally 
hold an interior conversation with self, that 
our being, our faculties and our activities and 
actions are out of balance. 

Our strength is greater than our action. 
The strength of the desires we feel in regard 
to truth, and in the heart in regard to good¬ 
ness and beauty, is infinite. The action of 
both faculties, which is nothing more than 
activity itself in action, is always limited, be¬ 
cause action cannot extend itself beyond its 
source, which, like all created powers, is finite 
and limited. We want to know all of truth 
and love all that is lovable. In this regard 
our activity is infinite; it does not limit itself 
— 82 — 


GOD ALONE SUFFICETH 


to any definite being, but it extends itself 
over all; and while it does not understand 
everything, and does not know the ultimate 
reason for all things, and does not possess 
them all, our hearts never rest. 

But naturally, we cannot understand by 
actual knowledge the whole of truth, for it is 
certain that we do not know more truths than 
those contained or expressed in an idea which 
we are actually studying or contemplating. 
We cannot say that which we do not actually 
think of, and we never think of ideas of a dif¬ 
ferent nature at the same time. Our thoughts 
in regard to divers objects may be very rapid, 
but they are always successive. The under¬ 
standing, then, privileged though it be, act¬ 
ually understands only such truths as are 
manifested to it through expressed ideas. But 
all ideas, on account of their very nature, are 
limited, finite. Therefore an idea will never 
be able to disclose to the understanding the 
whole truth, which is infinite. And, as on the 
other hand the heart or the will can never go 
beyond the rays of light that the intelligence 
sends them, the action of the will must also 
be always limited; it will never possess with 
the grasp of love more than a few well num¬ 
bered objects. This cannot satisfy it. There¬ 
fore, man abandoned to his own strength is 
condemned to ever desire infinite truth, 
boundless love and unlimited beauty without 
ever being able to either understand Truth, 
— 83 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


that is to say the whole Truth, or possess in¬ 
finite Goodness or contemplate essential 
Beauty. It glimpses more than it is able to 
see and understand, it desires more than it is 
able to obtain. Its activity or desires are un¬ 
limited. Its nature, its being, and conse¬ 
quently its action or activity, are limited. 
There is, then, disagreement between its de¬ 
sires and its actions; between its actions and 
its nature. 

Here lies the why of the heart’s anguish 
and the soul’s restlessness in this world. In 
order to quiet them we must counterbalance 
our nature with our desires. We can well say 
of human nature what the illustrious Lacor- 
daire has affirmed of all beings in general: 
‘‘An action superior to its activity is impos¬ 
sible ; and inferior action does not suffice for 
men; an action equal to their activity is the 
only thing that will set them at rights with 
themselves and with the rest of the uni¬ 
verse.” (Conference on the Interior Life of 
God,) 

And how can this beautiful harmony be es¬ 
tablished, how adjust immense desires or 
boundless activity, to a nature and actions es¬ 
sentially limited and finite ? 

We must uplift nature or the faculties, and 
consequently the power of action; or lower 
their desires of activity. In some way 
either nature and the faculties must be made 
infinite, or the desires finite. Behold the out- 


— 84 — 


GOD ALONE SUFFICETH 


line of the great problem—the torment and 
at the same time the comfort of the human 
spirit. 

Here is the dividing line that separates 
naturalism or rationalism from Catholicism. 
The former wants to establish harmony in 
our being, by quenching all idea, all sentiment 
of the infinite; erasing all traces of God im¬ 
printed in our souls. It pretends to counter¬ 
balance this most distressful world of the 
human spirit, not by raising what is less 
noble to what is most perfect and lofty; but 
on the contrary by lowering what is highest 
to what is less perfect, the spirit to matter. 
It takes away the infinite element, so that 
having, unlike the brute, more than material 
and coarse elements, tendencies and aspira¬ 
tions, we shall have in our soul a clear dis¬ 
tinction between virtue and vice, between the 
temporal and eternal, between the aspirations 
and our effort to satisfy them. 

To rationalists the infinite is but a foolish 
fancy; to think of it, desire it and love it, 
is a chronic disease of the human spirit. To 
cure it, rationalists hold that our heart must 
be restrained to the end that it may never 
think of anything beyond the confines of time 
and of matter. So that not thinking of God, 
nor desiring anything beyond the material 
and sensible, earth would suffice us; on it, 
they imagine, we would be contented and sat- 
— 85 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


isfied, live in complete peace, happiness and 
freedom. 

But it will not be possible for rational¬ 
ism to complete its work; it would be neces¬ 
sary to recast human nature and form it in 
another and an impossible mould. That divine 
breath of life which God infused into the first 
man (and at the moment of creating them) 
into each of our souls, naturally and spon¬ 
taneously tends and returns to its source, 
God. It is the law of the spirit’s gravitation 
that even unconsciously acts upon them, in 
the same manner as the law of universal 
gravity acts upon the molecules of bodies. 
Unbelief, systematic scepticism, the disorders 
of a vicious life, may for a time cause the 
desire for the infinite and the necessity of 
seeking God, to lay dormant; but to obliterate 
them—never. The serious disorders of life, 
the clamor of the passions, can neutralize the 
attraction of spirits towards God; sever it, 
never. Men are incredulous whilst they do 
not rightly think of themselves. They do not 
hear the promptings of their own hearts when 
they do not want to listen, because they are 
afraid of its intimate reproaches, hut sooner 
or later these will make themselves heard. 

A great writer has said, that in order not 
to believe, for example, in the existence of 
the soul, such a great effort is required that 
the entire human race is incapable of making 
it, because ‘‘at the least distraction we find 


— 86 — 


GOD ALONE SUFFICETH 


ourselves instinctively believing again in the 
soul/^ Great possible effort and attention 
are required not to desire, in any way, the 
infinite and eternal. If the rationalist's 
mind wanders from its efforts to disbelieve, 
it immediately thinks of God; and very easily 
does a prayer escape his lips when he suffers 
acute pain or serious loss. Then he uncon¬ 
sciously confesses he is wrong, or is ashamed 
of his bad logic. When some sudden inspira¬ 
tion of truth flashes through his mind, with¬ 
out giving him time to reflect that it would 
best suit his purpose to feign unbelief, he 
readily accepts it. If the sorrows and avow¬ 
als that have escaped from the lips of the 
most marked rationalists and greatest ene¬ 
mies of Catholicism were recorded, number¬ 
less volumes would be written. Through the 
clouds of their unbelief they catch a glimpse 
of something beyond; and in spite of them¬ 
selves they love it, or at least they would like 
to have it—wishing to love it and feel it as 
others happier than they love and feel it. 
They are in an agony of soul, because they 
are deprived of the breath of supernatural 
life; and on this account the mind lingers in 
a never-ending death; because in that vague 
desire for the infinite which torments it, the 
soul is shown to be immortal. For it suffers 
in this world in which its adequate destiny 
does not exist, because it loves to possess the 
infinite, which is as natural to it as is its 
— 87 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


physical life. It is a great truth that in this 
world man even hy intuition prays and weeps. 
(Lacordaire, Letters to a Youth, first letter). 

To all those men who persist in their un¬ 
belief, and in withdrawing from heaven try to 
be happy on earth, and in the same manner 
to those who believe, 

God alone can suffice. 

When they think they have already found 
enough light, warmth and beauty on earth, 
and that they have established (as they 
fancy) perfect harmony in the soul, obliterat¬ 
ing all thoughts of heaven, then nature itself 
will take them in charge and give them the lie 
by causing restlessness; and when the parox¬ 
isms of unbelief have passed, their soul will 
cry out to them, as did the soul of the poet of 
Sorrento. Light! more light! 

No; rationalism will never establish har¬ 
mony in the human heart, because it can 
never find anything to make it happy, to suf¬ 
fice its longings. 

Catholicism has solved this great problem 
in such a way, that it is only necessary to 
trace it in order to see its divine origin, for 
man is by nature incapable of fully conceiv¬ 
ing such lofty things. 

The Catholic solution is as opposed to that 
of rationalism, as truth to error, as light to 
darkness. It raises the nature and the facul¬ 
ties, and consequently the actions of man, to 
the height of the desires or aspirations of his 
— 88 — 


GOD ALONE SUFFICETH 


soul. Catholicism makes the faculties and 
actions in a certain way infinite, like our as¬ 
pirations and desires; and it shows them 
their adequate objects. In this way harmony 
is established in the heart. 

Rationalism pretends to harmonize by 
lowering what is most uplifting in man. 
Catholicism establishes it by uplifting all 
that was lowest in us. 

Rationalism does not want the heart to de¬ 
sire or aspire, except to what it can acquire 
by its own powers. Catholicism uplifts man, 
ennobling his nature and faculties, so that our 
actions may be in proportion to the objects 
of the most noble aspirations of the soul. 

The series of intimate relations which God 
establishes with man for this divine uplifting 
of our being, constitutes a group of august 
and adorable mysteries, whose study has ex¬ 
ercised the most privileged spirits and rav¬ 
ished with sweetest consolations, souls who 
have contemplated them with faith. For the 
present we may only lift a corner of the veil 
that covers them; and then we adore them 
with sincere faith until the day comes when 
we shall see clearly and distinctly all these 
marvels of the invisible world of grace. 


— 89 — 


CHAPTER ELEVENTH 


Sublimity of Catholic teaching. Doctrme 
of grace. The sons of God. Their long in¬ 
fancy. St. Paulas teaching. How few reach 
their greatest spiritual age in this world. In 
heaven alone, God will suffice for the com¬ 
plete happiness of all. 

In order to establish harmony in our heart, 
God Our Lord begins by uplifting or digni¬ 
fying the nature of our souls by means of 
divine grace. Grace is a participation of di¬ 
vinity, a supernatural form given to us which, 
added to our soul, deifies and causes it to be 
born again to a certain divine life. By the 
infusion of the human form, which is the soul, 
we are born to human life; and by the in¬ 
fusion of sanctifying grace, which is a deific 
form, we are born to a supernatural and di¬ 
vine life. 

This is the manner in which the profound 
meaning of the language of the Bible and of 
the Holy Fathers of the Church, is understood 
when it calls those who are in the grace of 
God, deific spirits and sons of God. Our Lord 
Jesus Christ tells us that unless we are horn 
again of the Holy Ghost, we shall not be saved 
(John iii, 5). St. John speaks of those who 
have been horn and preserve the seed of 
divinity, which renders them incapable of sin 
— 90 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 

and makes them the sons of God (I John iii, 
9). And St. Peter says that God has be¬ 
stowed upon us many graces, so that we may 
be made partakers of the divine nature (II 
Peter, i, 4). 

The Holy Fathers, authentic interpreters 
of Eevelation and of the divine mysteries, 
have had no difficulty in using a language in 
which they consider man raised to the hon¬ 
ors of a participated divinity. ^^The Holy 
Ghost infuses a certain divine form in us, and 
the same Holy Spirit reforming us by sancti¬ 
fication, that is, through grace, the character 
of God and the Father shines forth in our 
souls.’’ Such is the language of St. Cyril 
of Alexandria. No less conclusive is the 
great St. Ambrose: ^‘With reason did one 
say: We belong to His same race [God’s], 
for He has made us His own lineage, so that 
we may seek that divine distinction that is 
not far from each one of us” (Epistle xliii. 
No. 10). The same doctrine was expounded 
by St. Leo the Great in this pathetic ex¬ 
clamation: ‘‘Recognize, 0 Christians! thy 
dignity. And having been made a partici¬ 
pant of the divine nature, thou wilt not wish, 
by unworthy conduct, to return to thy for¬ 
mer vileness” (Serm. 21, In Nativ. Domini). 

And finally the Church, gathered together 
in the august assembly of Trent, placed the 
seal of infallibility on her teaching of these 
consoling truths (Sess. VI, Can. XI). She con- 
— 91 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


demned the doctrine of Protestants who, set 
on lowering human nature, affirmed that God 
justified or raised man in a manner purely 
extrinsic, changing him intrinsically. If a 
prince raise a pauper to the dignity of 
adopted son, this favor of course does not 
change the man^s real nature. Fine raiment 
may be able to hide his defects; but in reality 
he will be the same as before, infirm, and ig¬ 
norant, if he was that way formerly. This 
is the way Luther and Calvin understood the 
grace of our divine elevation to the dignity 
of sons of God. The Church condemned this 
interpretation as false and heretical. There¬ 
fore grace changes and raises the very na¬ 
ture of our soul, changing it really and intrin¬ 
sically, and, as it were, deifying it; she con¬ 
cedes to it a dignity and perfection in a cer¬ 
tain way infinite. 

Nature thus being dignified, it follows that 
the faculties should also be uplifted; for if 
the natural faculties emanate from the na¬ 
ture of the soul, so also from this second 
deific nature which through grace is added to 
the soul, flow divine faith, hope and charity 
and other supernatural gifts, which go to en¬ 
lighten the understanding and sanctify the 
will, and to change both of these faculties in¬ 
trinsically, raising them to a supernatural 
perfection, and making them capable of cour¬ 
ageous acts proportionate to the uncreated 
Truth and Goodness. 


— 92 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 


Thus begins the establishment of that cov¬ 
eted harmony of our infinite desires with our 
faculties; and hence the nature of the soul 
possesses also a certain infinity. Those who 
have been elevated in this manner practice 
certain acts that the rest of men cannot prac¬ 
tice. Yes; with grace, that is to say super¬ 
natural faith, hope and charity, we perform 
acts which exceed the natural capacity of 
man. 

Christians believe truths which the rest of 
men cannot even conceive, considering them 
as the height of the absurd and the ridicu¬ 
lous ; and this Catholic belief has been so in¬ 
timate and sincere, that it has not only regu¬ 
lated all the customs of nations, but the 
faithful have joyfully sanctified it with the 
blood of eighteen millions of martyrs. Is 
this not supernatural? They have also loved 
with sweetest pleasure and greatest joy, 
those classes of men always contemptible to 
the rest of the human race—the poor, the 
sick and the infirm. They have not only for¬ 
given, but also loved their enemies; and in 
the midst of the world and the desert, in pal¬ 
ace and in hut, in all climes and nations, and 
doing violence to their natural tempera¬ 
ments, they have practiced the two virtues 
most opposed to human nature; humility, the 
most profound and sincere, and chastity car¬ 
ried to its highest degree of virginal purity. 
Christians alone have done all this. If this 


93 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


is not supernatural, how is it that it cannot 
be practiced except by souls who willingly 
embrace the cross of Christ, who live beneath 
its shadow and who nourish themselves with 
its sap transmitted through the sacraments, 
which is the vivifying water of grace and of 
faith, hope and love? 

I foresee the objection that will naturally 
occur to whoever reads the preceding lines. 
The majority of pious people do not seem 
raised to a supernatural order, for they often 
have the same or even greater defects than 
the rest of men, and they take little or no 
care to practice charity, holy purity and the 
other virtues here distinguished as effects of 
grace. 

This objection has no other merit than that 
of being very pretentious and as such, sophis¬ 
tical. Combine the terms and it will hardly 
deserve the honor of being answered. 

For what is understood here by sons of 
God, that is, by men who are actually raised 
to a supernatural order? Not those who 
feign piety; not those who are Christians by 
conviction, but rather through conventional¬ 
ism or other defective motive. Neither those 
who live habitually in mortal sin, although 
they preserve their baptismal name of Chris¬ 
tian. These by sin descend from the high dig¬ 
nity of sons of God. They preserve neither 
the grace, hope nor charity that formerly 
raised them to a supernatural order. If they 
— 94 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 

have any faith left, it must be a dead faith. 

Of all these the true sons of God can say 
with St. John that they are with us, hut they 
are not of us (I Epist. John ii, 19). The ob¬ 
jection then touches only the scant number of 
practical and sincere Christians, who pre¬ 
serve in their souls the divine gift of grace. 
That these, too, may have their weak points 
and even great falls that cause them to lose 
sanctifying grace, is not only a practical 
truth that is evident every day, but also a 
dogma of faith. 

Whosoever would be scandalized at this 
would give proof of little knowledge of the 
human heart and of the matter under discus¬ 
sion ; because the divine life in virtuous souls, 
while we are still in this world, does not reach 
its full development; it is, as it were, proba¬ 
tionary; and in the meantime man is weak, 
like a child, in this stage of life, and he there¬ 
fore too often falls many times and does not 
behave as a son of God, although he is so in 
reality. One must be patient with him, as 
a mother with her son, until he acquires 
strength enough to stand erect and walk 
alone. 

My little children, of whom 1 am in labor 
again, until Christ he formed in you^^: that is, 
divine life of Christ (Gal. iv, 19). Such is 
the beautiful and tender expression of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles, which sums up all the 
great cares of the Catholic ministry of souls 
— 95 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


during the, at times, lengthy childhood of 
man in the life of faith, of grace and of char¬ 
ity. And whoever does not feel in his heart 
that strength of patience and warmth of faith 
and charity, necessary to co-operate in the 
spiritual and divine regeneration of souls and 
assist them in their infancy, is not suited for 
the Catholic apostolate. 

Whilst man is a child in his physical life, 
he cannot perform all the physical actions of 
a man; in many he is not unlike the brute. 
While the Christian is a child in the divine 
life, he does not always act like a full-grown 
son of God; in many things he is not unlike 
the rest of men. It is enough for me to see 
that a child only once performs a manly deed, 
to convince me that he is now approaching 
adolescence; it is also enough for me to know 
that some men have once performed deeds 
that are above human strength, to convince 
me that they are something more than men. 
The falls or weak points they may have, show 
me that they are still children in the divine 
life and not that they are bereft of it or have 
never had it. Those who, here on earth, have 
already become very strong in this divine 
life, do not fail; we call them saintsy but 
saints are very scarce. The rest of us are 
only children in virtue, as it is supernatural 
virtue; and as children we are bound to stum¬ 
ble and fall; but our defects can scandalize 
only those who are yet themselves children 
— 96 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 


in the science of the human heart and in the 
arcana of holy knowledge. For me, it is 
enough to know that there has existed on 
earth a St. Teresa of Jesus, a St. Vincent of 
Paul, a St. Francis of Assisi or a St. Francis 
de Sales and that there are many souls who 
in the secret of the home or the cloister, prac¬ 
tice virtues that man of himself is incapable 
of performing. These souls are sufficient 
proof to convince me that God sanctifies 
man, raises him above the ordinary strength 
and conditions of human nature. 

As even supernatural life is not perfect in 
this world, neither is the equilibrium or har¬ 
mony it must produce, always perceptible in 
human hearts. It is true that it is always 
greater than in the rest of men. Neither Sar- 
danapalus, nor Augustus, nor any lover of 
earthly pleasures have been able to say with 
as much reason as the most persecuted of the 
apostles, in the midst of his imprisonments 
and trials: 1 am filled with comfort: I ex¬ 
ceedingly aboimd with joy (II Cor. vii, 4). 
If there is a man in this world in whom fancy 
and reason, the intellect and the will, the 
heart and the senses, actions and duty and 
conscience, are in complete harmony, he is 
surely a son of God who lives in the shadow 
of the cross, and who nourishes his soul with 
the spiritual dew of heaven. 

^^No wonder it has been said that the heart 
of the believer is a continuous feast, that it 
— 97 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

derives more joy from what it denies itself 
than the unbeliever from what he allows him¬ 
self; that even tears of penance are a source 
of more joy than were the defects that gave 
rise to their being shed (Coussette, The Good 
Sense of Faith, 2nd part, book 3, chap. 3rd). 

But pure and believing hearts, even though 
they would not exchange their holy peace or 
inner joys, or a single portion of their pure 
happiness for all the pleasures of the world, 
are yet not satisfied; they aspire to an eter¬ 
nal peace and an infinite joy. To all those 
who live by faith and hope the apostle of love 
has said: Dearly beloved, we are now the 
sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared 
what we shall he (I Epist. John iii, 2). 

This completion of life will be in heaven, 
where the grace that has been infused in us 
here on earth will not only remain, but de¬ 
velop all its vital power within the faculties 
of the soul; in the will, where it will increase 
the supernatural form of charity, which will 
then be free to unfold itself, without ob¬ 
stacles, in acts of the most intense love for 
infinite goodness and beauty; in the intellect, 
where the supernatural form of faith will be 
substituted by a divine light of glory, that 
will raise the human understanding to such 
high perfection, as to make it capable of see¬ 
ing with intuitive and immediate vision the 
very essence of infinite truth, verifying what 
was so ecstatically sung by the Prophet-King 
— 98 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 


(Psalm XXXV, 10): In thy light we shall see 
light. Without this supernatural, deifying 
and uplifting light, the understanding would 
never be able to know God rightly—the es¬ 
sential Truth who contains in Himself all 
truth; he could have only some representa¬ 
tion or image of God. But as every image or 
representation is limited by its very nature, 
the knowledge of God by means of ideas or 
images such as we have at present, although 
seen through the eyes of faith, is of necessity 
finite and limited. The understanding, know¬ 
ing God in this manner, does not know the 
whole truth, for it knows infinite truth under* 
a finite form, which can in no way satisfy 
him. 

As the heart, on the other hand, cannot ex¬ 
tend itself in loving more than the under¬ 
standing in knowing, therefore, while the 
knowledge of God is as yet imperfect, man 
will love Him under a conception that is also 
limited. Neither can such a love satisfy 
man’s infinite aspirations towards goodness 
and beauty. In this way the lofty aspirations 
of our soul would be impotent, and equilib¬ 
rium and harmony could never be eternally 
established in it. 

But the human understanding, deified and 
strengthened by that supernatural light, be¬ 
comes so uplifted, that (what before was im¬ 
possible to it) to knotv without enigmas or 
images the very essence of truths becomes 
— 99 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


most easy and natural to it. God immediately 
unites Himself in heaven to the human intel¬ 
lect, which sees in Him totally and perfectly 
the infinite truth and all created truths whose 
knowledge it can possibly desire. 

Thus, and only thus, by raising human na¬ 
ture unto the infinite, can that perfect equilib¬ 
rium of mind be established, which Lacor- 
daire says must exist between our action and 
activity, so that the heart may be happy and 
the cravings of the soul pacified. Our activ¬ 
ity or our infinite desires will be able to reach 
their infinite objects, because infinite, in a 
certain way, will be the actions of our facul¬ 
ties dignified by the supernatural forms of 
the light of glory and of charity; and these 
same faculties will he able to be thus up¬ 
lifted, because the essence of the soul from 
which they spring will he regenerated and 
deified by the divine form of sanctifying 
grace. 

God alone can produce all this series of 
supernatural operations in our soul, because 
only He can bestow on us grace, the founda¬ 
tion of our happiness and greatness. God 
alone can grant the supernatural light, 
which strengthens the intellect. In God alone 
can be found all created and uncreated truth. 
Therefore only God can present it to the in¬ 
tellect ; and as only by knowing the truth in 
this way can the human soul find rest, we 
shall conclude by uniting to the Canticle of 
— 100 — 


SUBLIMITY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING 


our beloved Mother St. Teresa the testimony 
of Sacred Theology and Metaphysics. 

It is very gratifying to our hearts to prove 
that these two sciences, the most noble the 
human soul can cultivate, demonstrate what 
our Mother taught when she sang, that in 
order to fill the immense capacity of the hu¬ 
man heart, 

God alone sufficeth. 


— 101 — 


CHAPTER TWELFTH 

Confirmation of history and daily experi¬ 
ence. Conclusion. 

Our Holy Mother Canticle could not lack 
the testimony of history and of daily experi¬ 
ence which so beautifully expresses a truth of 
Catholic dogma, demonstrated by Theology 
and Metaphysics. For history also proves 
that in order to quiet the restlessness of the 
human soul only 

God alone sufficeth. 

A simple, angelic child of four summers, 
seated beneath a tree in the garden, whilst 
a tiny bird trilled forth his joyous song, was 
saying to her little brother who wept incon¬ 
solably for his sweet mother, who had just 
died: ‘ ‘ Why do you cry so, my little brother ? 
See, that little bird doesnT cry: hear how 
happily he sings! ’ ^ 

^ ‘ The birds sing here, ’ ^ replied the sad lit¬ 
tle orphan, ‘^because there is no other heaven 
for them. We who are of heaven weep here 
on earth.’’ (Marshall, Hope for Those Who 
Weep, chap. XIV.) 

It would not be possible to express in more 
beautiful and simple form such a profound 
and consoling truth. 

0 Divine and Holy Catholic Religion! May 
you be forever blest! Because you cause to 
— 102 — 


CONFIRMATION OF HISTORY 


awaken, even in the hearts of infants, truths 
so sublime that neither the world ^s greatest 
scholars, nor geniuses who thought them¬ 
selves inspired, could even glimpse them. 
You explain to us the cause of sorrow, you 
give us the reason for our constant restless¬ 
ness, and you show us our eternal destinies. 
You are not comprehended by scholars who 
know not how to believe, but you are under¬ 
stood even by little children who know how 
to feel and love. 

If the birds sing, it is because for them 
there is no other heaven but this earth of 
theirs; man has the exclusive privilege in this 
world to thmk and weep, because he is the 
only being who is a pilgrim, and the only one 
who has need of something nobler. Nothing 
on earth suffices him, because his destiny is 
higher. 

All other beings of creation have reached 
here their proper destiny, and have been in 
possession of it from the first moment of 
their creation. The stars have as their proper 
sphere the circumference of their orbits; the 
birds, the regions of the air; the fish, the 
paths of the sea; the flowers and shrubs, their 
climates and seasons; and the wild beasts, 
their caves in the forests. They are in pos¬ 
session of their destinies, and for this reason 
they neither weep nor progress. Everything 
moves in concert and harmony in the uni¬ 
verse. The human heart alone is in confusion 
— 103 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

and disorder; man is the only discordant note 
in this universal concert. All other beings 
enjoy themselves each in his own special way; 
they laugh and sing because they want noth¬ 
ing. Only man weeps, sighs and suffers, be¬ 
cause nothing suffices him. 

Man is the most mysterious being of the 
universe. All other beings already possess 
their relative perfection, all are perfect in 
their order, that is, they are completely fin¬ 
ished. Man alone, in spite of his pride, must 
recognize himself as imperfect. He is as yet 
in his infancy, in process of completion, ac¬ 
cording to the language of philosophers. He 
is imperfect in all his faculties, because he 
feels satisfied in none. He is an edifice partly 
begun. It is true that in his beginning he has 
already more absolute perfection than all 
other beings in creation, but what he has yet 
to acquire is much more; he is the most im¬ 
perfect of all beings and yet the most per¬ 
fectible of all. The most imperfect, because 
he does not feel satisfied in any of his facul¬ 
ties ; the most perfectible because he will not 
content himself with less than the whole of 
truth and all of goodness; by paraphrasing 
one of PascaPs thoughts, man may be de¬ 
fined: A nonsense, an insig-nificant littleness 
just arisen out of nothing; he is even almost 
nothing; but he is going onward to unite him¬ 
self to the infinite; whilst he does not reach 
the infinite, nothing can content him. 

— 104 — 


CONFIRMATION OF HISTORY 


Nothing is sufficient to any of our facul¬ 
ties ; none of them can fully enjoy here below 
their proper object. With our eyes we would 
love to contemplate the material beauty of 
the world in all its splendor and grandeur, 
and instead we must see the earth stained by 
blood and look upon the fetid wounds of the 
human race. With our ears we would love to 
hear infinite harmonies, and we are compelled 
to listen to moans, sobs and imprecations. In¬ 
stead of the soft nectar so much dreamed of 
by poets, or that delicious manna that for the 
Israelites fell from heaven in the desert of 
Shin, we must partake of a most bitter bread, 
because it is kneaded with men’s tears, sweat 
and blood. We have a terrible craving to see 
it all, to touch it all, to taste it all. We would 
love to travel over the world with more speed 
than lightning, and rise through the air like 
the eagle, disputing the scepter with that 
haughty queen of space, and like her sit upon 
the clouds and rock upon the wings of the 
winds; but the body holds us captive on earth. 
The complaints of our soul, while contemplat¬ 
ing the birds that traverse the regions of 
space, were aptly sung by a great Carmelite 
poetess in her romance of a little bird, ‘‘for 
one stanza of which, ’ ’ says Menendez Pelayo, 
“I would willingly exchange all the satires 
and epistles, idyls and pindaric odes that were 
composed by the masters of her time.” 

* * * * * * * 


— 105 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


Oh thou! light feathered songster 
Flitting through the skies, 

If thou canst, pray! higher rise 
And be my messenger; 

Of my trials a loving memorial 
Bear in thy rapid flight, 

To the inaccessible light 
Of the Sun of Justice eternal. 

# * * * # * # 

We cannot even control the earth at our 
pleasure; so that we cannot easily explore 
her enormous mountains which rise to block 
our way; and the rivers and seas are often 
closed against our passage. It is true that 
after titanic efforts we have been able to 
pierce mountains with our tunnels, and we 
sail over the sea and rock upon her billows 
with almost as much security as if we slept 
upon a soft bed of flowers; but with all this 
we have yet much to do in the conquest of 
the world; and as regards space, after four 
thousand years of effort, and above all, after 
all our many discoveries, we have not satis¬ 
fied our desires, but only enlarged them. The 
more we discover and invent, the greater be¬ 
comes the restlessness of the human spirit. 
And now, the higher part of our souls is even 
less satisfied with created things, than are the 
senses. The intellect hungers after truth. 
We would like to know the essence and the 
why of all things; but truth even to the most 
privileged geniuses manifests itself only in 
— 106 — 


CONFIRMATION OF HISTORY 


fragments, and by small degrees, as if it dis¬ 
dained to communicate itself to us. 

Perhaps the heart is the faculty which feels 
itself most imperfect here on earth; it is the 
one that suffers most, the one that feels most 
acutely the weariness of exile. It wants to 
live a life of purity and of love, of beauty, 
confidence and friendship. It has been 
formed in a most delicate manner, in order 
to live a life of tenderness and of sentiment. 
But if there is a wanderer and exile in this 
world, it is the human heart of the truer kind. 
It is rarely understood, its affections hardly 
ever corresponded with, and too often it is 
despised and ridiculed. If it overcomes these 
obstacles, it stumbles against another one 
more to be feared, for it is easily sullied. 
Friendship is rare, and if at last it is found 
there is danger of its degenerating. The 
heart should surrender itself but to an angel, 
and angels do not live on earth. 

If there is any human longing that nothing 
will satisfy, it is that of the human heart. The 
man who suffers most is the one who feels 
most. Even paganism recognized this truth; 
and, as it feared sorrow, it formulated this 
famous apothegm: Unfortunate is he who 
loves. A modern poet has sung in saddest ac¬ 
cents : It is a misfortune to love. Let us mark 
these sentences, because they testify to unde¬ 
niable truth, and are sad echoes of the hearths 
wailings in this world. If it does not love, 
— 107 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


it is dead; and if it loves, no matter what 
form the sentiment takes, its tenderness will 
be a burden that will torment it; nothing will 
satisfy it. Ancient philosophers, knowing 
the insatiability of the heart, determined to 
kill it, drowning its sentiments and proclaim¬ 
ing them weaknesses. This is the most con¬ 
vincing, practical proof that outside of God 
nothing mil suffice the human heart. 

The flower, in its way, is satisfied with the 
morning dew; the lambkin with the pasture 
where it grazes; the insect in joining with its 
monotonous song the entire concert of crea¬ 
tion; inanimate beings also in following the 
laws of universal gravitation and the cohesion 
of their parts. These all have what they 
covet and it satisfies them. Only man is al¬ 
ways dissatisfied; he neither has all he de¬ 
sires, nor is he satisfied with what he has 
most ardently longed for when he obtains it. 
He wants to nourish himself with peace, love, 
light, truth and beauty, and will not be con¬ 
tent with just any manner or degree of pos¬ 
session, but wishes to own them with an en¬ 
tire and eternal possession. Outside of God, 
all is limited and transitory. God alone is 
most perfect and unchangeable. God alone 
is eternal peace, boundless love, uncreated 
beauty, infinite light and truth. For this rea¬ 
son the heart that has wandered far from 
God, has always been and will always be rest¬ 
less. 


— 108 — 


CONFIRMATION OF HISTORY 

Therefore history and experience, theology 
and metaphysics teach, in union with our 
Doctor of Avila, that 

God alone sufficeth. 

* * * * ^ * 

St. Teresa of Jesus, of angelic mind, 
seraphic heart and deific soul, approaching so 
near in her ecstatic contemplations the source 
of eternal truth, was able to know and feel 
the most sublime truths that the human mind 
can perceive in this world, and she summa¬ 
rized them in this short, little verse, which can 
provide matter for meditation through an 
eternity of ages for the most lofty intellects. 

The royal eagle rising in flight through the 
air and gently swaying herself upon the 
clouds, where storms cannot reach, holds do¬ 
minion over space above mountains and val¬ 
leys, and, dwelling in peaceful contentment, 
is not affected by the raging elements below. 
So our Saint, the peerless eagle, rose on the 
wings of prayer and of genius above every¬ 
thing created; with her thoughts and heart 
she reposed on the very heart of God, as 
did St. John, the exile of Patmos. When she 
found herself in that inaccessible focus of 
light, she, like the apostle of the Gentiles, 
could affirm: heard secret words, which it 

is not granted to man to utter (II Cor. 
xii, 4). 

Our Saint in the apotheosis of her glory, 
like all mothers, remembered her children and 
— 109 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


wished to instruct us so that we too might 
be able to rise to those heights, and in the 
form of a canticle she taught us all that any 
exile of heaven must know. Our Mother, from 
the heights of her lofty contemplation, saw 
clearly that in this long journey towards 
heaven, we would meet with immense trials, 
capable of bowing even the cedars of 
Libanus; and like a mother lulling her chil¬ 
dren in the cradle, with ineffable tenderness 
she instructs and encourages us, singing to us 
the sweetest, wisest and most profound can¬ 
ticle ; 

Let nothing trouble thee. 

Let nothing affright thee, 
because all is in the hands of God who is our 
Father, and who with paternal providence 
watches over and protects us, if we place all 
our trust in Him. 

If you see virtue despised and vice cher¬ 
ished, truth ridiculed and error enthroned, 
and it seems to you that in heaven there is no 
longer any Providence for this world, remem¬ 
ber that God makes no haste to apply the 
whole weight of His justice here below, be¬ 
cause 

All things are passing, 

God only is changeless. 

Virtue alone will be eternal, if we do not wil¬ 
fully sever the holy tie that binds us to God. 

Let not your trials discourage you, how¬ 
ever great they may be; do not let them bow 
— no— 


CONFIRMATION OF HISTORY 

to the dust your mind made to contemplate 
heaven. With your heart and your trust 
placed in God, fight valiantly to the end, my 
children, without ever losing courage; be¬ 
cause you depend upon God. Strengthen your 
heart with Him, for 

Patience gains all things. 

And if you deserve God’s protection, you 
will be happy on earth and in heaven, because 
in time and throughout eternity. 

Whosoever hath God wanteth nothing. 

Be not concerned about prosperity of any 
kind, nor heed in the least the favor of men, 
nor become troubled over their inconstancy; 
because there is nothing more certain or prac¬ 
tical than this sublime truth: 

God alone sufficeth. 

Thus singing, our holy and beloved Mother 
united the most sublime as well as the most 
practical truths that on earth and in heaven 
man can ever know. 


— Ill — 


MAXIMS 

Of St. Teresa of Jesus for her religious. 

1. Uncultivated land, although fertile, 
will produce thorns and thistles; so also 
man’s intellect. 

2. Speak always well of spiritual things as 
well as of religious, priests and hermits. 

3. Among many, speak always little. 

4. Be modest in all you do and say. 

5. Never argue much, especially over 
things of little moment. 

6. Speak to everybody with moderate joy. 

7. Never ridicule anything. 

8. Never reprehend anyone without dis¬ 
cretion and humility and inner confusion. 

9. Accommodate yourself to the disposi¬ 
tion of the one with whom you treat, with the 
joyful, joyful, and with the sorrowful, sor¬ 
rowful ; in fine, be all to all, in order to gain 
all. 

10. Never speak without thinking well on 
what you are going to say and commending 
it to Our Lord, so as not to say anything dis¬ 
pleasing to Him. 

11. Never excuse yourself, except in a 
very evident cause. 

12. Never say anything of yourself 
worthy of praise, as to your knowledge, vir- 

— 112 — 


MAXIMS 


tues or lineage, if there is no hope of doing 
good thereby: and even so, let it be with hu¬ 
mility, reflecting that those gifts come from 
the hand of God. 

13. Never exaggerate things, but with 
moderation say what you feel. 

14. In all your talks and conversations al¬ 
ways intermingle some spiritual topics, and 
thus you will avoid idle words and murmur- 
ings. 

15. Never affirm a thing without first be¬ 
ing sure of it. 

16. Never intrude your opinion of any¬ 
thing if not asked for it, or charity demands 
it. 

17. When persons speak of spiritual 
things, hear them with humility, and as a 
disciple, and take to yourself the good they 
say. 

18. To your superior and confessor dis¬ 
cover all your temptations, imperfections 
and dislikes, so that they may advise you and 
give you a remedy for overcoming them. 

19. Do not be outside your cell or leave it 
without cause; and on leaving it ask of God 
the grace not to offend Him. 

20. Neither eat nor drink except at the 
accustomed hours, and then give many thanks 
to God. 

21. Do everything as if you were really 
seeing God; for otherwise a soul does not 
gain much. 


— 113 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


22. Never listen or speak badly of anyone 
but yourself; and when you rejoice at this 
you will be making progress. 

23. Each act that you perform, direct it 
towards God, offering it to Him and praying 
Him that it may be for His honor and glory. 

24. When you feel happy, let it not be 
with much laughter, but with humble, modest, 
affable and edifying joy. 

25. Always imagine yourself the hand¬ 
maid of all, and in everybody consider our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thus you will be re¬ 
spectful and reverential towards them. 

26. Be always prepared for the require¬ 
ments of obedience; do all things as if you 
were commanded to do them. 

27. At each action or hour, examine your 
conscience, and having seen your faults, try 
with the divine assistance to correct them; by 
this road you will reach perfection. 

28. Never think of the faults of others, but 
rather of their virtues, and of your own de¬ 
fects. 

29. Have a great desire to suffer for 
Jesus Christ in everything and on all occa¬ 
sions. 

30. Make each day fifty offerings of your¬ 
self to God, and do this with great pleasure, 
and a desire of possessing God. 

31. What you meditate about in the morn- 

— 114 — 


MAXIMS 


ing, keep before you all day, and be very dili¬ 
gent in this, as it is very profitable. 

32. Guard well the sentiments that the 
Lord communicates to you, and put into prac¬ 
tice the desires He gives you during prayer. 

33. Fly singularity as much as possible, 
for it is a great injury to the community. 

34. The prescriptions and rules of your 
constitutions read very frequently, and be 
sincere in keeping them. 

35. In all created things look to the Provi¬ 
dence and wisdom of God, and praise Him in 
all things. 

36. Detach your heart from everything; 
seek God and you will find Him. 

37. Never display outwardly, devotion 
that you have not inwardly; but you may well 
hide your indevotion. 

38. Do not show interior feeling of inde¬ 
votion except in great necessity: ‘ ‘ My secret 
is my own,^’ say St. Francis and St. Ber¬ 
nard. 

39. Of the food, whether it be well or bad¬ 
ly cooked, do not speak, remembering the gall 
and vinegar of Jesus Christ. 

40. At the table speak to no one, neither 
lift your eyes to gaze at another. 

41. Consider the heavenly banquet and its 
food, which is God, and the guests, who are 
the angels; lift your gaze to that table and 
desire to see yourself there. 

— 115 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


42. In presence of your superior (in whom 
you must see Jesus Christ) never speak, ex¬ 
cept when necessary, and then with great rev¬ 
erence. 

43. Never, without real necessity, do 
things privately that you cannot perform in 
the presence of all. 

44. Never draw comparisons between one 
person and another, because that is odious. 

45. When you are reprehended for some¬ 
thing receive it with interior and exterior hu¬ 
mility, and pray to God for the one who rep¬ 
rehended you. 

46. When your superior commands some¬ 
thing do not say that another commanded the 
contrary, but reflect that they all have holy 
ends in view. 

47. About things with which you are not 
concerned, one way or the other, ask not 
questions. 

48. Keep before you your past life in 
order to weep; and your present lukewarm¬ 
ness, and what still remains of your journey 
towards heaven, in order to live with fear, 
which is the cause of many blessings. 

49. What those of the household tell you 
to do, that do always, unless it be contrary 
to obedience; and always reply to them with 
humility and gentleness. 

50. Never ask for any particular thing in 
regard to food or dress, unless there is great 
need of it. 

— 116 — 


MAXIMS 


51. Never forego an opportunity of hu¬ 
miliating and mortifying yourself until 
death, and that in all things. 

52. Acquire the habit of making many 
acts of love, for they inflame and soften the 
soul. 

53. Exercise yourself in all other acts of 
virtue. 

54. Offer everything up to the eternal 
Father in union with the merits of His Son, 
Jesus Christ. 

55. With everyone be gentle, with your¬ 
self, severe. 

56. On the feasts of the Saints think of 
their virtues, and ask our Lord to grant them 
to you. 

57. Use great care every night in the 
examination of your conscience. 

58. On the day you communicate let your 
prayer be to realize, that though you are so 
miserable, yet you are to receive God. And 
let your prayer at night be a thanksgiving for 
having received Him. 

59. If you are a Superior, never repre¬ 
hend anyone with anger, but wait until it be 
passed; and thus the reprehension will be 
fruitful of good. 

60. Take great pains in acquiring perfec¬ 
tion and devotion, and with them perform all 
your actions. 

61. Exercise yourself in the fear of the 

— 117 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

Lord, for it keeps the soul in compunction 
and, humility. 

62. Heed well how quickly people change, 
and how little one must depend on them, and 
thus cling to God, who is unchangeable. 

63. Try to treat of the affairs of your soul 
with a spiritual and learned confessor, to 
whom you will disclose them, and follow his 
counsels in all things. 

64. Every time you communicate ask God 
for some gift, through the great mercy He 
has shown in coming to your poor soul. 

65. Although you have many Saints for 
advocates, call in particular upon St. Joseph, 
who is very powerful with God. 

66. In time of sorrow and trouble do not 
omit your customary good practices of 
prayer and penance; because the devil tries 
to disturb you so that you will abandon them: 
rather increase them, and you will see how 
soon the Lord will favor you. 

67. Do not communicate your temptations 
and imperfections to your associates gener¬ 
ally, because you will harm both yourself and 
them; but rather disclose them to those who 
are most perfect. 

68. Remember that you have but one soul 
and have but once to die; no more than one 
short life, which is yours and yours only; 
that there is only one glory and this is eter- 

— 118 — 


MAXIMS 


nal. Thus remembering, you will give up 
many things. 

69. Let your desire be to see God, your 
fear lest you may lose Him, your sorrow that 
you do not enjoy Him, your joy in whatso¬ 
ever can take you to Him; thus disposed, you 
will live in great peace. 

Deo Gratias. 


— 119 — 





POEMS 


COMPOSED BY 

ST. TERESA 
OF JESUS 


Translated by Benedictines 
of Stanbrook, Eng. 



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ST. TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 

Nada te turbe. 

Let naught disturb thee; 
Naught fright thee ever; 

All things are passing; 

God changeth never. 

Patience e’er conquers; 

With God for thine own 
Thou nothing dost lack— 

He sufficeth alone! 


— 123 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


SELF-OBLATION 

Vuestro soy, para Vos naci. 

Lord, I am Thine, for I was born for Thee! 
Reveal what is it Thou dost ask of me. 

O sovereign Lord, of majesty supreme! 

O Wisdom, that existed from all time I 
O Bounty, showing pity on my soul 1 
God, one sole Being, merciful, sublime. 

Behold this basest of created things. 

As thus, with hardihood its love it sings. 

And tell me, Lord, what Thou dost ask of me! 

Lo, I am Thine 1 Thou hast created me: 

And I am Thine, Thou hast redeemed me: 
And I am Thine, for Thou dost bear with me, 
And Thine, for Thou hast called me to Thee, 
And Thine, Who dost preserve me at Thy cost 
Nor leavest me to perish ^mid the lost— 

Say what it is. Lord, Thou dost will of me. 

Declare what dost decree, 0 Master kind! 

If serf so vile have any fitting task. 

And tell what office by Thy will ordained 
Is work that from so base a slave dost ask! 
Behold, sweet Love, I wait for Thy command. 
Behold me. Lord, before Whose face I stand! 
Do Thou reveal what Thou dost will of me! 

Behold my heart, which here I bring, and in 
Thine hand as glad entire free-ofiPering lay. 
Together with my body, life, and soul. 

The love, the longings that my being sw^ay! 

To Thee, Redeemer and most gentle Spouse, 
In willing holocaust I pledge my vows. 

What is there. Lord, that I may do for Thee? 
— 124 — 


POEMS 


Bestow long life, or straightway bid me die; 

Let health be mine, or pain and sickness send. 
With honour or dishonour; be my path 
Beset by war, or peaceful till the end. 

My strength or weakness be as Thou shalt choose, 
For naught Thou asketh shall I e’er refuse,— 

I only wish what Thou wilt have of me. 

Assign me riches, keep in poverty. 

And let me cherished or neglected dwell. 

In joy or mourning as Thou wilt, upraised 
To highest heaven, or hurled down to hell! 
Whether the sky be bright, from cloudlets free. 

It matters not—I leave the choice to Thee, 

What lot, O Lord, wilt Thou decide for me? 

Give contemplation, if Thou wilt, or let 
My lonely soul in dryness ever pine; 

Abundance and devotion be the gift 
Thou choosest, or a sterile soul be mine! 

O Majesty supreme, in naught apart 
From Thy decree can I find peace of heart! 

Say what it is. Lord, Thou dost wish of me! 

Lord, give me wisdom, or, if love demand. 

Leave me in ignorance; it matters naught 
If mine be years of plenty, or beset 
With famine direful and with parching drought I 
Be darkness over all or daylight clear, 

Despatch me hither, keep me stationed here, 

Say what it is. Lord, Thou wilt have of me! 

If Thou shouldst destine me for happiness. 

For Love’s sake, joy and happiness I greet; 

Bid me endure and labour till I die. 

Resigned, in work and pain my death I’ll meet. 
Reveal the how, the where, the when; for this 
Is the sole boon, 0 Love, I crave of Thee, 

That thou declare what Thou wouldst have of me! 
— 125 — 


SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


Let Calvary or Thabor be my fate, 

A desert or a fertile land of rest; 

Like Job, in sorrow let me mourning weep. 

Or lie, like John, in peace upon Tby breast; 
Bear fruit and flourish, or, a withered vine 
I’ll perish fruitless, so the choice be Thine! 
Reveal, O Lord, what Thou dost ask of me! 

Like Joseph as he lay in shackles bound. 

Or holding over Egypt first command; 

David chastised, atoning for his sins. 

Or David crowned as ruler o’er the land; 

With Jonas struggling, ’mid the raging sea 
Submerged, or set from ills and tempests free— 
Declare, 0 Lord, what Thou wilt have of me! 

Then bid me speak or bid me silence keep. 
Make me a fecund or a barren land; 

Expose my wounds by the stern Law’s decree 
Or comfort me by Gospel message bland. 

Let me in torture lie or comfort give, 

I crave alone that Thou within me live. 

And shouldst reveal what Thou wilt have of me 


SELF-SURRENDER 


Dichoso el corazon enamorado. 


How blessed is the heart with love fast bound 
On God, the centre of its every thought! 
Renouncing all created things as naught. 

In Him its glory and its joy are found. 

Even from self its cares are now set free; 
T’wards God alone its aims, its actions tend— 
Joyful and swift it journeys to its end 
O’er the wild waves of life’s tempestuous sea! 
— 126 — 



POEMS 


DIVINE BEAUTY 

jO hermosura que excedeis! 


0 Beauty, that doth far transcend 
All other beauty! Thou doest deign, 

Without a wound, our hearts to pain— 
Without a pang, our wills to bend 
To hold all love for creatures vain. 

O mystic love-knot, that dost bind 
Two beings of such diverse kind! 

How canst Thou, then, e’er severed be? 

For bound, such stren^h we gain from Thee, 
We take for joys the griefs we find! 

Things void of being linked, unite 
With that great Beauty Infinite: 

Thou fill’st my soul, which hungers still: 

Thou lov’st wifiere men can find but ill: 

Our naught grows precious by Thy might! 


“SOUL, THOU MUST SEEK THYSELF IN 
ME, AND SEEK FOR ME IN THEE” 

Alma, buscarte has en mi. 

Such is the power of love, 0 soul. 

To paint thee in My heart. 

No craftsman with such art, 

Whate’er his skill might be, could there 
Thine image thus impart! 

’Twas love that gave thee life: 

Then, Fairest, if thou be 
Lost to thyself, thou’lt see 
Thy portrait in My bosom stamped: 

Soul, seek thyself in Me! 

— 127 — 



SAINT TERESA’S BOOK-MARK 


Wouldst find thy form within My heart 
If there thou madest quest, 

And with such life invest, 

Thou wouldst rejoice to find thee thus 
Engraven in My breast. 

Or if, perchance, art ignorant 
Where thou mayst light on Me, 

Wander not wide and free. 

Soul, if My presence wouldst attain. 

Seek in thyself for Me! 

Because in thee I find My house of rest. 

My dwelling-place. My home. 

Where at all hours I come 
And knock at the closed portal of thy thoughts 
When far abroad they roam. 

No need is there to look for Me without. 

Nor far in search to flee; 

Promptly I come to thee; 

If thou but call to Me it doth suffice— 

Seek in thyself for Me 1 


THE SOUL’S DETACHMENT 

Lleva el pensamiento. 

Keep thy thought and ev’ry wish 
Ever raised to heaven on high; 

Let no trouble thee oppress. 

Naught destroy tranquillity. 

Follow with a valiant heart 
Jesus, in the narrow way; 

Come what will, whatever thy trials. 
Let naught ever thee dismay. 

— 128 — 



POEMS 


All the glory of this world 
Is but vain and empty show; 
Swiftly all things pass away, 
Naught is stable here below. 

Be thy sole desire to win 
Good divine that never wanes; 
True and rich in promises, 

God our Lord unchanged remains. 


Love what best deserves thy love— 
Goodness, Bounty infinite— 

Lacking patience, love can ne’er 
Reach full purity and height. 
Confidence and living faith 
In the strife the soul maintain; 

He who hopes and who believes 
All things in the end shall gain. 

Though the wrath of hell aroused 
Hard the hunted soul besets. 

He who to his God adheres 
Mocks at all the devil’s threats. 

Though disgrace and crosses come. 
Though his plans should end in naught, 
He whose God his treasure is 
Ne’er shall stand in need of aught. 

Go, false pleasures of the world 1 
Go, vain riches that entice! 

Though the soul should forfeit all, 

God alone would all-suffice! 


— 129 — 


PKAYER OF ST. TERESA 


O my God! since Thou art charity and love 
itself, perfect this virtue in me, that its ardour 
may consume all the dregs of self-love. May I 
hold Thee as my sole Treasure and my one glory, 
far dearer than all creatures. Make me love my¬ 
self in Thee, for Thee, and by Thee, and my neigh¬ 
bour, for Thy sake, in the same manner, bear¬ 
ing his burdens as I wish him to bear mine. Let 
me care for naught beside Thee, except in so far 
as it will lead me to Thee. May I rejoice in Thy 
perfect love for me, and in the eternal love borne 
for Thee by the angels and saints in heaven, 
where the veil is lifted and they see Thee face 
to face. Grant that I may exult because the just, 
who know Thee by faith in this life, count Thee 
as their highest good, the centre and the end of 
their affections. I long that sinners and the im¬ 
perfect may do the same, and with the aid of 
Thy grace I crave to help them. 


— 130 — 


H. S. Collins Printing Co. 
St. Louis, Mo. 


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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date; Feb. 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 




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